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Seeing 

Lancaster County 



- 9 



From 



Trolley Window 




A P; 'tri O ISI 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

CONESTOGA TRACTION COMPANY 

LANCASTER, PENNA. 
80 Pages , Price 10c 



tidtiCatiGfXXiCXii 




Qass E-llJ 

Book X^JKl 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/seeinglancastercOOkrie 



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SEEING 



LANCASTER COUNTY 



FROM A 



TROLLEY WINDOW 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

Conestoga Traction Company 

LANCASTER. PENNA. 






INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

The desire to acquire some knowledge of the history, 
present activities and natural scenery of Lancaster County 
induced the author to prepare these sketches for The Pennsyl- 
vania- German . 

The story was woven around the Trolley lines because 
these afford one of the most convenient and most economical 
modes of travel for the sightseer. 

It would obviously be impracticable to make mention of 
all the sources of information and courtesies shown, of which 
the writer availed himself. In addition to credits given in the 
text the author acknowledges his indebtedness to Rupp's 
History, Egle's History, Ellis and Evans' History, the pub- 
lications of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Franklin 
and Marshall College, Lancaster Board of Trade, The Cones- 
toga Traction Company, The Express Printing Company, Mr. 
F. R. Diffenderffer, Mr. George Steinman, Mr. B. F. Saylor, 
Mr. C. N. Derr. 

The author hopes the perusal of these pages may afford 
the reader as much pleasure as their preparation did the writer 
and that a wider knowledge of the county, a deeper love for 
history and higher life aspirations may thereby be promoted. 

The Author 
Copyright, 1910 by H. W. Krikbel 
Press of The Express Printing Company 



©cu 



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PART I 



The City of Lancaster 




LL aboard" for a trolley 
trip through Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania's 
" Garden Spot " and 
America's banner agri- 
cultural county. 

We will take our seats 
and before the gong 
clangs for departure will look about 
us. We are now in "Centre Square" 
of the city of Lancaster, at the cross- 
ing of King and Queen streets, a 
point from which on some days a 
thousand cars depart over one hun- 
dred and fifty miles of trolley track 
radiating to all parts of the county. 
Here one may stand aside and have 
the county's fashions new and old 
pass in review before him. 

Before us is a stately Soldiers' and 
Sailors' Monument erected by ladies 
and dedicated July 4, 1874. Around 
us on the different streets are large 
business houses and scenes of activity. 
It was not always thus. Time was 
when the Indians met here to make 
treaties under a hickory tree hence 
they were known as "Hickory In- 
dians" and the place was known as 
Hickorytown, even a hotel painted a 
hickory tree on its sign board. The 
place has been occupied by whites, 
however, for almost two centuries. 
When it was laid out in 1728 by An- 
drew Hamilton it was a hamlet pf,-, 
about 200 persons, grown to 3405 in\ 
1800 when it was the largest inland 
town in the United States. It was in- 
corporated as a borough in 1742 and 
chartered as a city in 1818. 

Courts were held here for the first 
lime in 1730, previous courts having 
been held at Postlethwait's tavern six 
■or seven miles southwest of us. The 



court house, erected and destroyed by 
fire June, 1784, stood where the monu- 
ment now stands. This was a two- 
storied brick building with steeple, 
belfry, a clock with two faces, pent 
houses and shingle roof. The lower 
room containing the court room was 
paved with brick, had a large hearth 
and elaborate furnishings ; its windows 
were glazed with small pieces of 
glass, leaded in and provided with 
blinds or shades of green, horizontal 
slats or shades on chords. The sec- 
ond floor contained a council chamber 
and a few small rooms. 

THE OLD COURT HOUSE 

The stirring scenes witnessed by 
this unpretentious building were so 
significant and important historically 
that "the day of Lancaster's greatest 
glory is past and will never return." 
In the words of H. Frank Eshleman, 
Esq., 

"How proud we should be today if 
now the building were standing pre- 
served on its site. How we should 
love it and value it ! What famous 
visitors, what great personages, we 
would .conduct through it, into its 
solemn, silent Court room, up its 
stairs into its chamber! How we 
Avould gaze in sacred awe into its 
empty seats, its quaint bench and bar, 
its blinds, its age-stained wood and 
brass, its girders and posts, its brick 
floor and primitive walls ! How we 
would speak in low whispers as we 
rehearse as we silently contemplate, 
standing within it, the train of mighty 
events that made it famous. All 
these would pass in silent parade 
before us in review as we stand with- 
in it! The ancient Justices with pow- 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



dered wigs; the mighty and pious 
Zinzendorf, his eloquent sermons and 
strange audiences, the commingled 
audiences of dusky Indian chiefs and 
white forefathers filling the room four 



dignation against England ; the mili- 
tary dress, adornments, and bearings 
of the soldiers at the memorable meet- 
ing of July 4, 1776; the surrendering 
of commissions and removal of the 




successive times in treaty met ; the 
stately warriors, the speeches, the 
voices, the intonations ; the excited, 
hilarious and patriotic speeches and 
ringing applause, punctuated with in- 



arms of King George III ; the solemn 
picture of Congress and its session of 
September 27, 1777! the stormy ses- 
sions of the Supreme Council of the 
State and Councils of Safety for nine 



PART I. THE CITY OF LANCASTER 5 

months; the edicts of attainder 1775 the marshalling- of military 

against the Tories and theif excited forces, in response to the firing of the 

neighbors coming into these halls and gnns at Lexington and Bnnker Hill, 

begging for them; the fnneral of the It later furnished the barracks for the 

President of the State with its martial British and Hessian prisoners of war. 

splendor." Three times did GecM-ge Washington 




The city has been an imporant cen- 
ter indeed for many years. It has 
seen the Irish, the German, the 
Welsh, the French meet here as the 
■seat of local government. It saw in 



honor the place by his presence. 
Hither came the fathers as to the seat 
of the State government from 1799 to 
1812. It was world renowned for its 
manufactories a century ago. 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



It has been the center of a religious 
life that has been unjustly the laugh- 
ing stock and justly the marvel of the 
world, exemplifying the fruits of free- 
dom of faith and thus directly aiding 
in the spread of the doctrine of relig- 
ious liberty throughout the world. 
MEN OF PUBLIC NOTE 

"In men of public note Lancaster 
City has never been wanting. Hence 
went Buchanan to the Presidency and 
Stevens to the leadership of Congress ; 
here Benjamin West painted pictures ; 
Tom Paine wrote tracts, philosophical 
and political ; Robert Fulton, a native 
of the county, experimented in steam 
navigation on the Conestoga. Here, on 
the site of the present court house, 
abode George Ross, signer of the 
Declaration. John Joseph Henry set 
out afoot from Lancaster to Quebec 
in Revolutionary days, and his diary 
is the most interesting account of Ar- 
nold's expedition. Here was born 
John F. Reynolds, destined to become 
the most gallant hero and most glo- 
rious martyr of the Union cause who 
fell on the red and rocky field of 
Gettysburg. From this bar and bench 
Jasper Yeates, William Augustus At- 
lee, Molton C. Rogers, Ellis Lewis 
and J. Hay Brown became Justices of 
the Supreme Court ; Amos Ellmaker, 
Thomas E. Franklin, Benjamin 
Champneys and W. U. Hensel were 
Attorneys General of the Common- 
wealth. The late James P. Wicker- 
sham and E. E. Higbee, and now 
Nathan C. Schaeffer have been Su- 
perintendents of Common Schools ; 
Amos H. Mylin, Auditor General, and 
W. W. Griest Secretary of the Com- 
monwealth. Col. John W. Forney 
was graduated from a Lancaster 
printing office. Rev. Dr. J. W. Nevin, 
Bishop Bowman and Father Keenan 
are_ names honored of all churchmen ; 
while Harbaugh, the Pennsylvania 
German poet, Muhlenberg, author of 
'T Would Not Live Alway," and 
other hymns, and Lloyd Mififlin, 
painter-poet, attest Lancaster's emi- 
nence in polite literature." 



IMPORTANCE OF CITY AND COUNTY 

The importance of the city and 
county covering less thain looo square 
miles and having a population of 170,- 
000 may be inferred from figures like 
the following, prepared by a compe- 
tent authority. 

"The annual value of her agricul- 
tural products in 1890 was $7,657,790; 
now it exceeds 11,000,000. All this is 
owing to excellent soil, skillful and 
steadfast farmers and diversified 
crops. On an average, the wheat crop 
is 2,000,000 bushels ; corn crop, 4,500- 
000 bushels ; the tobacco crop, grown 
on 16,000 acres, produces an annual 
revenue to her farmers pf from $2,000,- 
000 to $3,000,000. Since 1890 that crop 
alone has brought into the county the 
enormous sum of $80,000,000, nearly 
all of which has remained here, and it 
is represented by increased fertility 
and handsome improvements, new 
buildings and. enlarged domestic com- 
forts and elegance. 

"There are within this limited ter- 
ritory thirty-five, (now thirty-six) Na- 
tional banks, two State banks and six 
Trust Companies, with aggregate re- 
sources at the beginning of 1908, of 
nearly $38,000,000. Of National 
banks alone this single county has 
ijiore than Arkansas, Montana, Mis- 
sissippi, South Carolina, Florida, Utah 
Idaho Or Wyoming. 

"Last year 4,000 carloads of cattle 
were received at the Union Stock 
Yards, Lancaster. Of these, 30,000 
head were fattened within the county 
by her farmers. There are ninety-four 
Rural Free Delivery routes in the 
county, (now ninety-six) more than 
any other county in the United States." 

In view of the preceding which is 
but an iota of the reality one is pre- 
pared to appreciate the words of Mr. 
F. R. Diffenderfifer when he says : 

"Lancaster city enjoys almost un- 
equaled advantages of location in 
many respects. She sits on an elevated 
limestone ridge, which secures her 
the advantage of excellent health and 
satisfactory drainage. Along her east- 



PART I. THE CITY OF LANCASTER 



ern and southern borders winds one 
of the most beautiful rivers to be seen 
anywhere, affording visions of pic- 
turesque scenery and beauty excelled 
nowhere, as I believe on this conti- 
nent. Around her, beyond her own 
territorial limits is spread a country 
than which the sun shines on none 
richer or more beautiful, and which 
vies with the garden spots of the 
world. Take along with these the 
general aggregation of her population, 
in intelligence, in industry, in wealth, 
and may I not add, in morals, and we 
have an aggregate of conditions and 
circumstances of the most desirable 
kind, and which, all things considered, 
make her one of the most desirable 
places on the globe to be born, live 
and die on." 

To cover the city and suburban 
points by trolley will take consider- 
able time. Instead of tracing out and 
showing each point of interest we will 
merely note some prominent historic 
spots, quoting from a recent L. B. 
Herr print. 



POINTS OF INTEREST IN CITY 

"A monument on East Ross street 
marks the spot where George Ross 
lived, the only signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence from Lancaster 
county. The Franklin and Marshall 
College and Academy and the Re- 
formed Theological Seminary build- 
ings are situated in the northwestern 
part of the city, on College avenue 
and West James Street. Trinity 
Lutheran Church, on South Duke 
street near East King street, was es- 
tablished in 1733, and the building 
was consecrated in 1766. The tower, 
which is 195 feet high, was erected in 
1794, and the set of chimes was first 
used in 1854. Governors Wharton 
and Mifflin were buried at this famous 
old Church. The stone building of the 
Moravian Church, on West Orange 
street was erected in 1746, the brick 
building being added in 1868. Wit- 
mer's bridge, which was erected in 
1799 and spans the Conestoga a short 
distance east of the city, was on the 
direct wagon route from Philadelphia 
to the western part of Pennsylvania. 




WHEATI.AND 



COURTESY LANCASTER BOARD OF TRADE 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



When first erected a toll was charged 
which frequently amounted to $25 in 
one day. 

"The County Almshouse and In- 
sane Asylum are located on East King- 
street near Witmer's bridge, and the 
Thaddeus Stevens Industrial School is 
just a short distance to the west. 

"Among the industries of Lancaster 
wil be found the Hamilton Watch 
Factory, two large umbrella factories, 
the largest linoleum factory in the 
world, cork factory, silk mills, cotton 
mills, cigar factories, tobacco ware- 
houses, soap factory. 

"As a tobacco centre, Lancaster city 
and county rank with the greatest 
tobacco producing sections of the 
United States. Most of the tobacco 
raised in the county is delivered by 
the farmers to dealers in the city, who 
pack it and ship to all parts of the 
world. The crop amounts to millions 
of pounds annually. 

" 'Wheatland, ' which is located a 
short distance west of Lancaster, was 
the home of James Buchanan, the 
fifteenth president of the United 
States, and the only president from 
Pennsylvania. His remains lie buried 
in Woodward Hill Cemetery. Thad- 
deus Stevens, the "Great Commoner," 
lived in Lancaster, and his remains lie 
in Shreiner's Cemetery. Thomas 
Henry Burrowes, the founder of the 



free school system in Pennsylvania, is 
buried in St. James Cemetery near the 
North Duke street side, where a 
monument marks his resting place." 

Before leaving the city to see the 
sights throughout the county it will 
not be amiss to say that to a consider- 
able extent, the early agricultural, in- 
dustrial, domestic activities through- 
out the county were very much alike. 
We need not therefore dwell on the 
Indian and frontier life, the grist, saw, 
fulling mills, the tanneries, the distil- 
leries, furnaces, and forges of each 
community, that in former days were 
familiar sights all over the- county, 
but of which all traces have in many 
cases disappeared. 

Nor can we dwell on Lancaster's 
sons and daughters who have gone 
forth to people the earth nor on the 
many men who have made their na- 
tive count}^ illustrious. 

Nor must we overlook the fact that 
in many points the sources of history 
are few and fragmentary. Men were 
so busy making history that they 
failed to record it. 

The mere fact that the place was 
connected one hundred years ago with 
Philadelphia by a turnpike along 
which were strung hotels as beads on 
a string one a mile the whole distance 
speaks volumes on the early industries 
and activities of the county. 




RESIDENCE OF W. t. HERSHEY, LANDISVILEE, PA. 



PART II 



A Trip to Marietta 



Starting- on our trip to Marietta, we 
thread our way along Queen, Chest- 
nut and Charlotte streets, past grave- 
3^ard, school buildings, churches, 
stately mansions crowding humble 
one story cottages, the old and new in 
closest quarters, until we strike the 
old Columbia pike completed over a 
century ago. As we hasten south- 
westward we leave on our left vel- 
vety lawns studded with stately na- 
tive forest trees hiding lovely homes 
and soon pass the old mill in the hol- 
low at Abbeyville and West Lancas- 
ter reminding one of hustling prairie 
cities. Should we fall into reverie the 



of toil from all in the household from 
grayhaired sire and matron to inno- 
cent youth. 

Before we are aware of the progress 
we are making we have passed Ridge- 
way and the Three Mile House with 
their beautiful vistas to the distant 
blue hilltops, we cross a railroad 
bridge and find ourselves in Mount- 
ville, lovely for situation, a borough a 
mile long casting 250 votes and inter- 
ested in a silkmill, a cigar factory and 
a plow works. Shortly after crossing 
the bridge, we can see to our right a 
paintless, decaying, tumble-down log- 
house hiding behind overgrown bush- 




CONESTOGA WAGON 



COURTESY LANCASTER BOARD OF TRADE 



toot of the automobile, the yells of the 
trolley excursionists would probably 
awake us. 

In imagination we can see the his- 
toric emigrants moving westward, and 
hear the strongly built Conestoga 
freight wagons grinding their slow 
way along. But these too are things of 
the past. We must not fail to note the 
scenery, the attractive farm buildings 
and the tobacco lands with us all the 
way to Marietta, ranging in area from 
a few square rods to half a dozen 
acres or more, a patch to a farm, edg- 
ing themselves to the very backdoors 
of the farm dwellings exacting a toll 



es, the oldest building in town, (a can- 
didate for a bi-centennial celebration). 
The unfounded story is told that it was 
once a cooper shop and that George 
Washington held a courtmartial in it. 
Just beyond is the Barnholt hotel al- 
most old enough to justify a centen- 
nial celebration. 

Do not fail to observe the sandstone 
blocks in front of the hospitable hotel 
porch. These are relics of the original 
State railroad between Philadelphia 
and Columbia, abandoned quite early 
however from a point half a mile east 
of Mountville to Columbia. The orig- 
inal track was made by placing these 



10 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



and like sandstone blocks two feet 
apart in the ground. On these cast 
iron chairs were placed and fastened 
with iron spikes. The rails weighing- 
forty pounds to the yard were fitted 
into a groove in the chairs and fas- 
tened by wedges which were contin- 
ually being loosened by the jolting of 
the cars with their five ton cargoes, 
drawn by horses all the way from 
Columbia to Philadelphia. 

But we must hasten on and leave 
the charming town with its peace and 
quiet and historic atmosphere. We 
are soon beyond the borough limits, 
the Quay homestead with its red 
house and yellow farm buildings to 
the left of us. We have been passing 
along or through Manor and the two 
Hempfields, a rich section and in parts 
so thickly settled that it has been 
called a continuous village. On en- 
tering Columbia Ave pass a rotary sta- 
tion to the left which marks the place 
where the original Philadelphia and 
Columbia railroad crossed the turn- 
pike. The place of the original turn- 
table is still visible not far away. Af- 
ter zigzagging our way through the 
historic town we find ourselves at 
the foot of Walnut street where we 
must change cars for Marietta. But 
we can not leave this historic town 
without looking about us. 

COLUMBIA 
Columbia, occupying the site of the 
Indian town Shawanah, and the scene 
of many a conflict between various In- 
dian tribes, was settled by the 
Quakers 1726, laid out by Samuel 
Wright in 1827 and sold in lots by 
lottery. It was the one terminus of 
and known as Wright's Ferry dating 
back to 1730 and as such a very im- 
portant place for emigrants moving 
south and west, well-known even in 
England and spoken of in official 
papers of the crown. It was no unu- 
sual thing to see from 150 to 200 ve- 
hicles of all kinds waiting at the ferry 
house for their turn to be ferried 
across. 



The place was also very important 
as the terminus of the railroad built to 
intercept the river traffic. The town 
was at one time so near the center of 
population of the United States that 
in 1789 it was taken into serious con- 
sideration as a possible place for the 
seat of the National government. The 
inhabitants of the town were greatly 
surprised June 11, 1825 to see the ar- 
rival of a steamboat attempting to 
navigate the Susquehanna. The boat 
was warped over the most danger- 
ous places and went as far up as 
Wilkes-Barre where it was destroyed 
by the explosion of the boiler. One 
of the earliest efforts in the state to 
supply the inhabitants of an incorpor- 
ated town with spring water conveyed 
in pipes under ground was made here 
in 1821. 

We must not fail to take a look at 
the Blunston House on Mt. Bethel 
part of which was built 1728 where 
Washington was once a guest (an un- 
founded story) and the Wright house 
built between 1740 and 1750 owned at 
one time by Susanna, daughter of 
John Wright the founder, a remark- 
able woman, educated in England, ar- 
tist, poet, legal and medical adviser, a 
spinner of silk that was woven into 
dress goods exhibited in England. 

Columbia has seen enterprises like 
the river and canal commerce, the iron 
manufacturing industry, the railroad 
traffic, take root, thwve and decay but 
pheonixlike lives, groAvs and hopes 
and who shall say that it has passed 
its golden age? 

"The city of Columbia has a popula- 
tion 13,000; two railroad systems, fast 
freight lines through to New York, 
Boston and the East; to Pittsburg and 
the West ; to Baltimore and the 
South ; three hours from Philadelphia, 
five from New York, ten from Boston 
and eight from Pittsburg; only sixty 
miles from the anthracite coal fields; 
laAV taxation and valuation ; coal for 
manufacturing purposes cheap ; elec- 
tric railways ; abundant water supply 
free for manufacturing purposes ; four 
banks, sixteen churches, good schools, 



PART II. A TRIP TO MARIETTA 



11 



four newspapers, an efficient fire de- 
partment, good markets and free mail 
delivery. In health it ranks very" high. 
Columbia is a cosmopolitan town. Al- 
most every nationality is represented, 
and yet we need no police force. Co- 
lumbia is a manufacturing town in 
every sense of the word, having one of 
the most prosperous stove works, five 
rolling mills, and a wrought iron pipe 
mill that has a capacity of two hun- 
dred tons of finished pipe every twen- 



vania. Columbia gave to the trans- 
portation a Scott, a Houston, a Fran- 
ciscus and a Lockard ; to literature and 
art Lloyd Miffiin, the greatest living 
poet; to the army. Generals Welsh and 
Fisher, Majors Kelsey and Pf abler, 
and hundreds of other brave officers 
and men; to law a North, one of the 
ablest lawyers in the country ; to en- 
terprise and business, S. S. Detwiler, 
the best friend Columbia ever had, a 
man of absolute integrity, whose death 




COLIMP.IAS HISTORIC BRIDGES 



ty-four hours. We manufacture the 
best laundry machinery in the world, 
and the celebrated Columbian wagons. 
We have a silk mill that is capable of 
employing a thousand hands, and 
everyone of these boys and girls are 
able to sign their names to the pay 
rolls. We have a successful Grey Iron 
company; a lace mill that makes ten 
tons of lace curtains every week, tan- 
neries, cut glass factories, and other 
smaller enterprises. Columbia has no 
paupers nor millionaires, but more 
people who own their own homes than 
any othert town of its size in Pennsyl- 



Avas mourned by the entire community 
as a personal bereavement." 

(From a speech by Flon. C. C. 
Kauffman.) 

WRIGHTSVILLE 
The whistle of the ferry steamboat 
" Mary" tempts us to cross the Sus- 
quehanna and as it costs five cents to 
to do so whether Ave go by ferry, or by 
steam or afoot over the 6000 foot 
bridge we take our seats and will let 
the sternwheel peddles "kick" us tO' 
York county, crossing where the white 
man has been crossing well nigh 200 



12 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



years. The bridge before us, a ma- 
jestic structure of strength, simpHcity, 
and beauty is the fourth at this place, 
the third on the same piers practically. 
Time forbids us to ling-er on the 
bridge history. 

A mile doAvn stream was the noted 
dam of the canal age. Three miles 
l3elo\A' is A\^ashington Borough, com- 




, Oldest Housft in WnchisvH s. Pa 



HISTORIC SPOTS OF WRIGHTSVHXE 

posed of Washington and Charleston, 
laid out a century ago, and occupying 
the site of an Indian town that is said 
to have had a population of 2000, 300 
years ago but of wdiich all traces have 
disappeared. In the days of rafting 



the banks of the Susquehanna were 
lined for miles with rafts and arks 
which meant an active business in var- 
ious lines, whiskey, boards, shingles 
lath, wheat, oats, coal and pigiron. 

But our ferryboat has docked .and 
we scramble out to get a glimpse of 
Wrightsville, laid out by Samuel and 
William Wright, of the trolley cars 
ready to take us to another noted man- 
ufacturing and trolley center, historic 
York, and of the enclosed monument 
in the public square of which we give 
herewith a view and the inscription. 

1S61-1865 
THESE GUNS PRESENTED BY 
U. S. GOVERNMENT, MARK 
WRIGHTSVILLE AS THE 
FARTHEST POINT EAST, 
REACHED BY THE CONFERERATE 
FORCES, JUNE 28, 1863, 
DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 
DEDICATED 
BY POST NO. 270 G. A. R. JUIA 4, 1900. 

x-\s we recross the river we think of 
the burning of the bridge in June 1863 
to prevent a rebel invasion, of William 
Smith the first martyr under the Fug- 
itive Slave law shot by a slave catcher 
April 30, 1852 and of William Wright 
one of the earliest active agents of the 
Underground Railroad. 

CHICKIES ROCK 

Taking a car for Marietta we soon 
leave behind the ruins of past, the 
noise and smoke of present iron in- 
dustries and worm our tortuous path- 
way through forest primeval and 
dreamy dell to the top of historic 
Chickies Rock, 300 feet above the bed 
of the stream. 

Standing here one sees the Susque- 
hanna snaking along its ancient rocky 
pathway, heavy freight trains creeping 
lazily by on the old canal bed fringing 
the river. Columbia to the left, Mari- 
etta to the right. Round Top across 
the river gap in front and imagina- 
tion involuntarily tries to conceive the 
length of time since the river began 



PART II. A TRIP TO MARIETTA 



13 



its ceaseless task of kissing, grinding" 
and crushing its way through 300 feet 
of solid rock. Chickies has given 
sermons to preachers, dreams to 
poets, illusions to lovelorn lads and 
lasses, sport to thoughtless youth, a 
hiding place to the lawless, daily 
bread to the toiler, a shelter, a school, 



MARIETTA 

We are now on the territor}^ origi- 
nally settled by the Scotch-Irish who 
as pioneers pushed to the extreme 
front of civilization, settling as squat- 
ters on the highest grounds and re- 
fusing to ])ay quitrents to the pro- 
prietaries. Donegal, existing 1722, 




DR. S. S. HALDEMAN 



an inspiration to Dr. S. S. Haldeman 
who has won a deathless interna- 
tional fame for himself, but we must 
hurry to catch our car to take us 
down a winding course to the valley, 
past ruins of half a dozen blast fur- 
naces, and into the heart of old Mar- 
ietta strung mainly along the old 
turnpike. 



originally extending indefinitely from 
Pequea Creek, north and northwest, 
became the mother of many town- 
ships and counties and illustrious 
citizens on whom we may not dwell. 
Following the banks of the Susque- 
hanna we might trace the footsteps of 
the Indian traders and reach Conoy 



14 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



ttownship so named after an Indian 
tribe and settled prior to 1719. Time 
was when scores of teams from in- 
land sections "waited their chance to 
:get fish. 

Marietta, originally known as An- 
•derson's Ferry and a business rival to 
Wrights Ferry, was established in 
1733. It "is composed of two towns 
New Haven founded 1805 and AVat- 
■erford laid out 1806. It was chartered 
in 1812 and received its name Mar- 



rafts, the widely known shad fisheries 
the former in population. The place 
grew too fast ; a large class of disrep- ■ 
utable persons followed the stream 
of speculators who overflowed the 
place, and, like birds of prey, lived off 
the earnings of others. When the 
final crash came but few were able to 
weather the storm." 

As one walks along the question 
comes up. Is the town's golden age in 
the past or the future? The canal, the 




CHICKIES AND MARIETTA 



ietta a compound name from the 
Christian names of Mrs. Anderson 
and Mrs. Cook the wives of the foun- 
ders. 

Marietta in its infancy experienced 
a boom which is thus referred to by 
a local historian "Columbia had the 
start of Marietta by eighteen years, 
but the latter sprang into existence 
as if by magic, and commenced to 
•crowd the heels of their Quaker 
ineighbors, and for a few years rivaled 



furnaces, the many massive kmiber 
rafts are no more. It has had for size 
and location few rivals from a literary 
and social standpoint. The dinners 
of the Farmers' Club in Duffey's Park 
alone gave the place national reputa- 
tion. 

Across the river are AVild Cat 
Falls formerly owned by and a resort 
of the Masonic Fraternity and an ob- 
servation house from which seven 
counties are visible. 



15 



PART III 



A Trip to Elizabethtown 




ETURNING from M a r- 
ietta to the trolley junc- 
tion (on the Columbia 
pike) a short distance 
west of Little Conestoga 
we take up our trip to 
Elizabethtown a seventy- 
five minute ride from the 
city of Lancaster. Our tour wdl take 
us through another rich agricultural 
section with its mixed farming includ- 
ing tobacco. We will first travel 
through East Hempfield, part of the 
manor of the same name so desig- 
nated on account of the hemp raised 
in pioneer days. A short ride brings 
us to Rohrerstown on the Marietta 
pike a neat, home-like, clean, well- 
built place through which we pass to 
the western end where we cross over 
the historic Columbia railroad to con- 
tinue our journey along the Marietta 
pike. The place known formerly as 
Hempfield, laid out in 1812 and dis- 
posed of by lottery, marred in 1834 by 
the railroad cut, blighted by the fail- 
ure of its iron industry and vivified by 
the presence of Hon. John W. Steh- 
man tempts one by its homelikeness 
to linger but we can not and must 
hurry on. 

This turnpike, known originally as 
"The Lancaster, New Haven and 
Waterford Turnpike," was incorpor- 
ated about the year 1805 and built 
soon afterwards. About four miles 
towards Marietta i s the historic 
Camber Hotel at Silver Spring built 
by Jacob Camber in 1810. Could the 
walls speak what a wonderful tale 
would they not tell of the county's 
men of celebrity who in summer and 
winter have patronized its hospitable 
shelter from heat and cold. Not far 
distant is Lancaster's inland, artificial 
lake, a quarter of a mile across, where 
in days of yore men delved for the 



rich iron ore to enrich themselves and 
their fellows and benefit humanity — 
but ruins, memories and riches in the 
hands of some are the remains to re- 
call the past. The hematite iron ore 
of this section of the county seems to 
have been located as early as about 
1737 although the profitable working 
of the mines came a century later. 
Should the tourist wish to take a drive 
through a lovely section of the county 
a trip along the ridge beyond Silver 
Spring will be most delightful. We 
regret that we may not linger to "re- 
minisce" about the early settlers. 

The gradual ascent of populous and 
productive Chestnut Hill opens up to 
view a wide expanse of an idyllic 
farming region to the east and south, 
soon cut off by our descending the 
north slope of the hill towards Lan- 
disville. We change our general direc- 
tion, passing rich farms with their 
peaceful homes to the charming grove 
of the Landisville Camp Meeting 
Ground famous for its large gather- 
ings " and religious services held here 
each season since 1870. 

Just beyond the grove is a large 
Mennonite church and close by, one 
of the county's historic buildings 
erected 1742, now an antiquated 
dwelling house but in its earlier days 
a Mennonite church. We skirt the 
century old town, stopping at the 
glass waiting room to receive pas- 
sengers and hasten away following 
the general direction of the Pennsyl- 
vania railroad. We pass Salunga, a 
rotary station, and begin to note the 
smoke of Mount Joy arising from the 
rural scenery to the west, presently 
crossing the Chicquesalunga creek 
and, passing through the fields of 
Rapho township, gradually approach 
the railroad. We shortly come across 
a locust grove on Chicques Creek in 



16 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




HISTORIC BUILDINGS 



which we notice the rums of walls, the 
remains of the erstwhile famous Cedar 
Hill Seminary, established in 1837, 
and soon find ourselves on the out- 
skirts of Mount Joy. We pass along 
the southern borders and cross the 
railroad and before we are aware of 
it find ourselves leaving- the town 
without getting a good view of it, 
making us feel that the trolley tracks 
and cars are or were not wanted in 
the heart of the town. Mount Joy is 
sliced in two by the deep railroad cut, 
spanned by seven bridges and is 
hedged on the north by the railroad 
on the old bed. Between these lies 
the main business street on the great 
Indian trail from Harrisburg to Phila- 
delphia now the Harrisburg pike. 

The earliest house in what is now 
Mount Joy was a tavern erected in 
1768 and forms a part of the Ex- 
change Hotel. In 1783 Michael Nichels 
built a tavern at an intersection of a 



road leading to Manheim which he 
called the "Cross Keys." The place 
became widely known as the hotel 
with the three crosses, — Cross Keys, 
Cross Roads and Cross Landlady. Be- 
fore its incorporation in 185 1 Mount 
Joy consisted of three distinct places, 
Mount Joy, Richland and Rohrers- 
town, the last named place having 
been laid out in lots in 1811 which 
were disposed of by lottery. 

In passing we may note the mis- 
take made by the historian Rupp and 
repeated by Egle in his History of 
Pennsylvania. By confounding the 
Mount Joy of Lancaster county with 
the Mount Joy of Valley Forge he 
placed Gen. Anthony Wayne with 
2000 of his troops a mile northeast of 
this borough from December 1777 to 
May 1778 instead of on the Schuyl- 
kill river in close proximity to Wash- 
inp^ton. 



PART III. A TRIP TO ELIZABETHTOWN 



17 




MOUNT JOY RAILROAD CUT 



Three miles southwest of Mount 
Joy on a hill at the foot of which 
gushes Donegal Springs, is the Old 
Donegal Presbyterian church in Don- 
egal township named after a county 
in Ireland from which the Scotch- 
Irish pioneer settlers came. 

The Donegal Presbytery was or- 
ganized in 1732. soon after which a 
log meeting-house was erected, re- 



placed by the present stone structure 
about the time of the Revolution. The 
church is about 75 by 45 feet. Orig- 
inally there were no doors at the end, 
the aisles were of earth, and benches 
of the homeliest construction were 
used. The building has been re- 
modeled a numl^er of times since. In 
1876 Samuel Evans wrote, "Ten years 
ago the church was again remodeled 




DONEGAL SPRINGS 



18 



SEEING' LANCASTER COUNTY A TROLLEY WINDOW 



by plastering the outside wails, clos- 
ing the west and south doors, putting 
in a board floor, and, in fact, made the 
whole structure conform to modern 
ideas of a church building. No person 
who had not seen the building for 
forty years could now recognize it. It 
is fortunate that the old Scotch-Irish 
have entirely disappeared from the 
neighborhood, or there might be an- 



Irish community erected under the 
auspices of the Witness Tree Chapter, 
Daughters of the Revolution was 
dedicated. Close by is the ancestral 
home of one of the line of progenitors 
of the late William McKinley, Jr., 
President, the Simon Cameron resi- 
dence, now occupied by his son Hon. 
J. Don Cameron who has become an 
extensive land owner, having already 




DONEGAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



other rebellion in Donegal."' 

It is related that during the Revo- 
lution a messenger came to a wor- 
shipper Col. Lowrey to order out the 
militia and march in defence of the 
commonwealth. The congregation ad- 
journed and met under the great oak 
tree in front of the churchyard and 
forming a circle vowed eternal hos- 
tility to a corrupt king and Parlia- 
ment and pledged themselves to sus- 
tain the colonists. 

On the fifth of October, 1899, a 
monument to the memory of the loyal 
pioneers and patriots of this Scotch- 



acquired more than half a score of 
productive farms in the community. 

The temptation is to linger on the 
history of the fair Donegal, Mount 
Joy and Rapho townships, once a 
Scotch-Irish stronghold from which 
the descendants have almost all dis- 
appeared to be followed by the Penn- 
sylvania Germans. Time forbids and 
we hasten on. 

We, therefore, resume our journey 
parallelling the railroad to youthful 
Rheems beyond which we pass under 
the railroad to the north side where 
we ascend a steep hill, and rather un- 



PART III. A TRIP TO ELIZABETHTOWN 



19 




CAMf;RON HOMESTEAD 



expectedly find Elizabethtown squat- 
ting in a hollow before us. This hill is 
known as Tunnel Hill because in the 
early days of railroading a tunnel was 
dug through it which was later trans- 
formed into an open cut. A min- 



ute more and we are at the ter- 
minus of the trolley line in the square 
of the ancient burg. This place, a 
borough since 1827, was laid out in 
1753 by Barnabas Hughes and named 
Elizabethtown in honor of . his wife. 




TUNNEL CUT 



20 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




THE SQUARE, EEIZ.ABETHTOWN 



Located centrally on the Paxton and 
Conestoga road i8 miles from Lan- 
caster, Harrisburg, Lebanon and 
York the town grew and prospered. 
The turnpike road from Lancaster to 
Harrisburg projected 1796, chartered 
1804 and com )leted as soon as possi- 
ble thereafter brought the great stage 
and transportation life through its 



streets and increased its prosperity. 
The "Black Horse" hotel built before 
the town was laid out became a noted 
stopping place. The present modern 
hotel building is close neighbor to 
one of its predecessors two doors 
away hiding its face and age behind 
a veneer of boards. Another old 
timer is the Keller house beyond the 





{if .rf-. 



J i.'>f 's. 1 1 1 "j" *a,j .^iSu-i J1.J- 1 «.ig^Sffl(.i_ r* «_ *i ita'ii^iji J, All i«— jua 




ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE 



PART III. A TRIP TO ELIZABBTHTOWN 



21 



Conoy, in former days also a hotel, 
but now a dilapidated dwelling house. 
The St, Peter'e Roman Catholic 
church was the first one built in the 
town. The congregation was organ- 
ized 1752. A log church was built 
1768 which was replaced by the pres- 
ent stone edifice in 1799. 



A serio-comical event happened at 
Elizabethtown in connection with the 
adoption of the public school system 
in 1843. The town favored the sys- 
tem, the township opposed. A three- 
foot snowfall on election day keeping 
the voters of the township from the 
polls, they started the following day 




iiii3 



cathouc church^ euzabethtown 



About a century ago a turnpike 
road from Elizabethtown to Falmouth 
on the Susquehanna was constructed, 
which was later abandoned by its 
owners and nicknamed Pumpkin Vine 
Turnpike from the fact that in many 
places these vines were allowed to run 
along or over the road bed undis- 
turbed. 



for town afoot, on horseback, on sleds 
and sleighs to upset the election. 
Justice Redsecker's office became 
crowded and uncomfortably warm 
due to the redhot stove and the crowd 
of angry voters, who seemed ready 
for a serious outbreak of violence at 
any moment. Matters had reached a 
critical stage when a chorus of short 



22 



SEEING' LANCASTER COUNTY A TROLLEY WINDOW 



hacking coughs and rasping sneezes 
began, accompanied by a rush for the 
door and fresh air with the mercury 
nearly down to zero. The change 
cooled the room and the voters. The 
room was cleared, the remonstrators 
were beaten, the day was won, and 
peace restored — all by the opportune 
placing of red pepper on the stove. 

Beautifully located on elevated 
ground in close proximity to the town 
are the buildings of Elizabethtown 
College, erected and controlled by the 
"Brethren" of Eastern Pennsylvania, 
opened with six students November 
13, 1900, and having almost tvv'O hun- 
dred students the last school year. 

The distance between EHzabeth- 
town and Middletown in Dauphin 
county, terminus of a trolley line 
reaching out from Harrisburg is about 
seven miles. Along this stretch is an 
old tavern, Running Pump, in its day 
a famous hostelry, Conewago creek 
arising at Mt. Gretna and Gainsburg 
near which lived Matthias Brinser, 
noted in the history of the Dunker 
church. 

The tourist will welcome the day 
when the trolley link is placed con- 
necting these towns and thus joining 
together the metropolis and the capi- 
tal of the state through its ''Garden 
Spot." 

The hills to the west of Elizabeth- 
town are destined to become the 
Mecca of the Masonic fraternity on 
account of Masonic charitable institu- 
tions. Respecting this the Herald of 
Elizabethtown said in September 
1909: 

"The home site is almost an ideal 
one in its formation and natural 
beauty. There are hills and level 
stretches causing a scenic efifect and 
breaking the monotony of a view of 
the site and of which one never tires. 
Situated on a ridge with the York hills 



and the Susquehanna visible for fifteen 
miles to the south, and to the north 
the Conewago "hills while on an east- 
ern view the tops of the South Moun- 
tain can be seen. It is a grand pano- 
ramic sight — the center of a ridge with 
a fine view of a radius of at least 15 
miles. 

Situatel on a ridge almost 700 feet 
above sea-level, the air is always pure. 
The drainage can be made perfect on 
account of the rolling land. Then 
there are six or more springs found on 
the site, flowing, never-failing and 
gushing forth from the bowels of the 
earth, the purest and best water ob- 
tainable. 

Few of the other forty sites inspected 
in Pennsylvania possessed near as 
many advantages. There is a small 
stream flowing through this section 
which can be artificially beautified as 
well as the springs, or they may be 
left in their rustic beauty. Then there 
are woods here and there which far 
surpass all human efl^orts in the grow- 
ing of parks — still the latter will be un- 
doubtedly cultivated and it will add 
relief to the scenic efl^ect of the whole. 
Elizabethtown's excellent railroad 
facilities and its nearness to Philadel- 
phia and Harrisburg weighed heavily 
in our favor. 

The ground chosen for the home is 
situated on the south side of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad aiid embraces about 
900 acres of fine rolling land with 
plenty of water and many acres of 
woodland. The cost of the property 
to the Grand Lodge will be about 
$100,000. This is but the beginning 
of the expenditure to be made for the 
institution, and it is expected before 
the buildings and grounds are ready 
for occupancy that at least two million 
of dollars will have been spent." 



PART IV 



A Trip to Pretty Pequea 




TARTING northward from 
Centre Square and then 
going eastward, we soon 
find ourselves on Manor 
avenue and later entering 
Lancaster township on 
the Millersville pike con- 
structed 70 years ago. The 
trolley line is on the bed of the noted 
pioneer horse-car railway connecting 
the city of Lancaster and Millersville 
and constructed in 1874. We are 
rapidly passing the beautiful homes of 
one of the county's original townships 
settled by Swiss Mennonites and to a 
large extent occupied by their descen- 
dants today. The Bausman machine 
shops and post office by the same 
name are soon reached. These remind 
us of the Bausman family, residents 
here and extensive land OAvners since 
1775, one of whose illustrious sons 
was the late Rev. Dr. Benjamin Baus- 
man of Reading, Pa. About a mile be- 



yond we pass a Mennonite church on 
the right and presently a road to the 
left leading to Wabank on the Cones- 
toga. It was here by the banks of the 
historic stream that theWabank Hotel 
was erected at a cost of $60,000. Be- 
coming the theater of many important 
events it was in 1858 sold for $9150 
after a few years' brilliant meteoric 
career, to be resold in 1864 for $4000 
and conveyed to I_^ititz, Pa., on 100 
four horse wagon loads where it Avas 
re-erected and later destroyed by fire. 

We now enter Manor township, the 
scene of some of the most important 
occurrences in the Indian history of 
the county, said to be the richest and 
most populous township of the county 
deriving its name from Conestoga 
Manor, surveyed 1717-1718 settled 
and since occupied mainly by Menno- 
nites. 

But we are approaching and pres- 
ently enter Millersville — in age, past 




VNABANK HOTEL 



24 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




POSTlvEWAlTE S TAVERN 



the century mark, in population, the 
principal unincorporated village of the 
township, in education one of the Na- 
tion's most noted communities as the 
home of the First Pennsylvania State 
Normal School. This renowned insti- 
tution established April 17, 1855, two 



3'-ears before the passage of the Nor- 
mal School law, recognized as a Nor- 
mal School in 1859, and thus old 
enough to have a monument to honor 
its students who died at the front 
during the Civil War, has to its credit 
a total enrollment of 40,000 students, 




MAIN BUIIvDING, MILEERSVIEEE NORMAL SCHOOL 



PART IV. A TRIP TO PRETTY PEQUEA 



25 



almost 3,000 graduates, a library of 
over 16,000 volumes and property 
worth over $700,000. If so inclined we 
may secure a conveyance at ^Nlillers- 
ville to take a drive on the Safe Har- 
bor road across the Conestoga past 
Slackwater, noted for its paper indus- 
try, southeast about . 2 miles to the 
home of G. J. Hehl and take a look at 
the Postlethwait house still occupied, 
noted as being the place of the first 
meeting of court of Lancaster county 
in 1729, situated on the great Cones- 
toga road in use to this point as early 
as 1714 and as important in early da3^s 



Indians by whites, but as all ves- 
tiges of the town have disappeared we 
hasten back to resume our trolley 
trip. 

Opposite the charming Normal 
School grounds we take seats on the 
cars of the Lancaster and York Fur- 
nace S. R. Company one of the trolley 
lines of tiie county not owned by the 
Conestoga Traction Company (not 
shown on the map) and soon find our- 
selves cutting across the fields away 
from the dusty highways down to and 
across the Conestoga. The rolling 
and more romantic and wilder aspect 




A TOBACCO FIEIvD 



to the community as the Pennsylvania 
Railroad today. Postlethwait's tavern 
was at one time near the center of 
population of the county and impor- 
tant enough relatively to be a strong 
competitor with Columbia and Lan- 
caster for the honor of being the 
county seat. From this historic spot 
we may drive several miles south- 
west to Indiantown, famous as the 
home of the Conestogoe Indians, as 
the meeting place for making treaties 
between whites and Indians and as 
the scene of an atrocious murder of 



of nature shows that we are passing a 
watershed and are . gradually ap- 
proaching hilly, Martic township, old 
"Martock" one of the six original 
townships, which we enter at its 
northern extremity. In a few minutes 
we pass through Marticville originally 
called Frogtown and Martic Forge, 
the terminus of another trolley line. 
We are now at the banks of pretty 
Pequea, in the neighborhood of one of 
the earliest iron industries of the 
county. A few steps back the Penn- 
sylvania Low Grade Railroad crosses 



26 



SEEING L.1NCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




MARTIC FORGE RAILROAD BRIDGE 



the Pequea over a bridge about 150 
feet above the bed of the stream. The 
stately buildings by the hillside are 
remains of past industry and activity. 
We are delighted with the kaleido- 
scopic scenery as we follow the banks 
of the Pequea to its mouth, the gently 
sloping wooded hillsides, the rocks, 
flowers, decaying trees, Colemanville 
with its dam, powerhouse, and neat 
cottages nestling along the slopes. 
Presently we pass two bridges, turn 
a sharp corner to find ourselves view- 
ing the historic Susquehanna with its 
bleak shores and rocky bed and at the 
end of the trolley line at Pequea sta- 
tion, or Shofif post office. Here we 
may spend our time fishing, studying 
the eloquent rock formation, explore 
Pequea's Cold Cave or take a trip to 
famed McCall's Ferry dam (a few 
miles down stream) which when com- 
pleted at a cost of over $10,000,000 
will be 32 to 80 feet high, causing an 
inland lake 10 miles long, a m'le wide 
and making possible the development 
of 100,000 horscDOwer. It has been 
estimated that in a distance of 60 



miles 400,000 horsepower is obtainable 
from the waters of the Susquehanna. 
A recent writer has said, "Within a 
period near at hand lower end farmers 
will plough, reap, thresh, grind and 
haul by electric power while their 
wives will run their sewing machines, 
mash potatoes, churn butter, grind 
coffee, milk the cows and rock the 
the cradle by the same subtle power." 
One sees visions of electric launches, 
gently disporting themselves on the 
bosom of the completed dam, cottages 
springing up along the banks of the 
river, pretty Pequea developed with 
its secluded sylvan nooks shutting 
out the noise, smoke and nerve strain 
of modern business, an observatory 
crowning Mt. Nebo's heights — all 
reached by a first class trolley line 
from Lancaster. But we must hasten 
back, ready for a trio in another di- 
rection. 

Back of the hills, about three 
quarters of a mile from the mouth 'Of 
Pequea Creek, John McCreary (1733- 
t8i6) and his wife Rebecca Clark 
( t 1819) reared a family of eleven 



PART IV. A TRIP TO PRETTY PEQUEA 



2T 



children of whose descendants only 
one representative, Mrs. Nellie j\Ic- 
Creary Hoopes of Harrisburg, resides 
in Pennsylvania today. Other de- 
scendants are found in Kansas, Cali- 
fornia, Washington and elsewhere. 
The ancestral home a "stone mansion" 
is still standing with its two-foot walls, 
its old-fashioned hinges, its strong and 
heavy doors, its small panes of glass, 
its open fireplaces, once the delight 
and comfort of its erstwhile occupants. 
We will retrace our course to the 
trolley junction at Martic Forge 
where we will take our seats on the 
waiting car of a most unique railroad 
doing business only about ten days 
out of 365 days (during the sessions 
of the Rawlinsville campmeeting) 
starting in a hollow, climbing 552 feet 
in i}i miles, losing itself a few miles 
away in thorns and weeds in a sparse- 



ly settled community. The ride is a. 
most interesting one, new vistas and a 
widening horizon gradually opening 
as we mount the hill. On the way we 
notice to the left a 1200 acre tract of 
grafted chestnut timber land that will 
some day yield rich harvests for its 
owners. We soon pass Mt. Nebo one 
of the most elevated points in Lancas- 
ter count}^, the view from which is 
scarcely surpassed. A few minutes' 
ride brings us to Rawlinsville, a busi- 
ness center and probably one of the 
oldest villages of the township, near 
which arises Tucquan creek a very 
noted stream flowing to the Susque- 
hanna, abounding in picturesc[ue and. 
beautiful scenery, a veritable natural- 
ist's hunting ground. Less than a 
mile beyond we reach the Rawlins- 
ville Campmeeting Ground noted for 
the crowds that attend the religious- 
services each year. 




RAWLINSVILLE TROLLEY TERMINUS 



28 



PART V 



From Quarryville to Lancaster 




E will transport ourselves 
to Quarryville, the south- 
ern terminus of one of the 
trolley lines, the mOst im- 
portant and populous 
town_ south of Strasburg, 
situated on the southern 
end of the valley marking 
the south limit of Lancaster limestone 
deposits and, at least in early history, 
of successful fa'rming, and consti- 
tuting the head of the Chester valley 
reaching to the Schuylkill river. It 
seems crowded into the extreme 
southwest corner of Eden township 
which was set ofif from Bart in 1855 
and was named after Mount Eden. 
Younger than some of its sister bor- 
oughs, Quarryville has t h r i v e n 
through its quarries and through its 
being the outlet for the trade of a 
large portion of the lower end of the 
county due to the completion of the 
railroad connection with the city of 



Lancaster in 1875. In addition to this 
and the trolley line the place is also 
reached by the heavy-grade, narrow 
guage Peach Bottom Railroad with 
its curves and kinks and twists that 
seemingly would rather go around an 
obstruction than remove it. 

To the east of Eden lies Bart set- 
tled about 1720, founded 1744, named 
for Governor Keith, Baronet, and 
noted for its nickel mines. In the 
cemetery of the Middle Octoraro 
I^resbyterian church lies buried Rev. 
John Cuthbertson, the first Reformed 
Presbyterian minister who preached 
in America, died 1791 at the age of 75 
years. Green Tree Inn, long the 
township's polling place is a veritable 
relic of the long ago, named after its 
c[uaint old sign-board, a tree in full 
foliage, that saw a 19 acre town laid 
out around it in 1763 named Smiths- 
burg, later Thompsontown, which did 




HOTEL. QUARRYVILLE 



PART V. FROM QUARRYVILLE TO LANCASTER 



29 





fVf't^ 




BIRTHPLACE OF ROBERT FULTON 



not materialize and of which no ves- 
tige is to be seen. 

To the west lies Providence, cut out 
of Martic township in 1853, an agri- 
cultural community with its pre- 
Revolutionary iron industrial history. 
The story goes that in the Avestern 
part of the townshi]:) cannon balls 
were cast during the Revolutionary 
war which vv-ere hauled to \^'ilming- 
ton, Del. One day the workmen 
thinking the English were close at 
hand — rather than let finished balls 
fall into their hands, allowed the mol- 
ten mass to become chilled and thus 
killed the goose that laid the golden 
(or iron) egg. 

To the south wedged in between 
the Susquehanna and Octoraro lies 
the southern section of the county 
originally settled by English and 
Scotch-Irish, and on account of prox- 
imity to Maryland the scene o f 
troubles arising out of the overlap- 
ping of territorial claims of Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland and of the exis- 
tence of slavery. ' Rolling Coleraine or- 
ganized 1738, settled and as late as 
1758 occupied by Scotch-Irish exclu- 
sively, like other townships had its 



iron industries. Little Britain organ- 
ized 1738 settled by immigration from 
Great Britain (hence the name Little 
Britain) could in days past lay claim to 
the world's most productive chrome 
pits. In this township lived Joseph C. 
Taylor who on a sultry September 
morning in 1844, hatless, shoeless, 
with gun in hand, at breakneck speed 
on a relay of fleet, bareback horses 
pursued, overtook, cowled down and 
delivered before a local justice a band 
of slavecatchers hastening to get 
across Mason and Dixon line with a 
captive colored mother and her two 
children. 

Fulton, carved from Little Britain in 
1844, settled in part by Marylanders, 
uncertain once whether in Pennsyl- 
vania or Maryland, was named for 
far famed Robert Fulton, born in the 
township, painter, mechanical genius, 
inventor of a submarine boat and the 
first to successfully realize steam nav- 
igation. The slate quarries at Peach 
Bottom, opened a century ago but not 
now in operation, enjoyed a far reach- 
ing business in their palmy days. 
Drumore from which East Drumore 
Avas cut in recent years, one of the 



30 



SEEING LANCASTER COILXTY A TROLLEY WINDOW 



original townships, a Scotch-Irish 
community, as early as 1770 could 
boast of a successful first class Latin 
school. Sickles were manufactured 
in the township in days of yore that 
won a national reputation. From this 
township went forth Captain William 
.Steele with seven sons to fight free- 
■dom's cause in the Revolutionary 
War. 

From a humble house and home in 
Drumore now no more went forth 
.also three sons of a poor Irish settler 
to become famous, William Ramsay, 
the oldest as a divine. David, born 
1749, as an eminent historian, 
Nathaniel, born 1751, as a lawyer, 
colonel and public official. 

But we must not linger too long in 
this hustling town, the birthplace of 
Hon. W. U. Hensel, and will take 
our seats in the car and quietly steal 
-away through the back lots, tempted 
by the charming outlook northward. 
We soon pass under the Pennsyl- 
vania low grade railroad, a monu- 
ment to men of brain and men of 
brawn not the least of whom is chief 
• engineer W. H. Brown, a worthy re;)- 




THE RAMSAY HOME 

resentative of a famous family of Ful- 
ton township. As we leave we notice 
to our left the ancient, stately and 
substantial "Ark", successor to the 
original log house, built 1790 on 
"Mount Arrarat" by Martin Barr 
who owned an estate of several thou- 
sand acres in the community. This 
the oldest house in the neighborhood, 
stands a kind of lonely in the midst 
of quarries and kilns. These with 
others close by, in use or in ruins, tell 
their tale of past toil and industry, 




BIRTHPI.ACE OF HON. W. U. HENSEL, QUARRYVIELE, PA. 



PART V. FROM QUARRYVILLE TO LANCASTER 



over 600,000 bushels of lime being 
burned and hauled away in one year 
alone (1858). 

TO STRASBURG 
A half hour's ride up and down hill 
along the Beaver creek valley through 
fields and along the highways past 
New Providence and Refton bring"s us 
to the junction with the Strasburg 
line and to the waiting room at the 
David Huber switch south of Wil- 
low Street. We are now in West 
Lampeter township named after Lam- 
peter in \A'ales(erroneously said to be 



the old Boehm M. E. church building 
erected on his own farm by the cele- 
brated United Brethren bishop Rev. 
Martin Boehm and friends in 1791. 
He died March 23, 1812 aged 86 years 
and his remains rest in the cemetery 
close by overlooking the ancestral 
homestead. 

Another noted building in this 
vicinity was the historic Martin Mylin 
house torn down some years ago. In 
evidence if the thoroughness used in 
its construction it may be stated that 
when the time tried sandsone walls 




THE HERR HOUSE 



named after lame Peter Yeordy an 
early settler), settled by the lierrs, 
Mylins, Kendigs, Bowmans and others, 
a township for which the claim has 
been made, not without good grounds, 
that if Lancaster county is the garden 
spot this is the queen of the garden. 
A quarter of a mile north of us is still 
standing the celebrated Herr home 
built 1719, a speechless, eloquent 
companion of the Postlethwait house 
of pioneer days on the Conestoga road. 
A mile south is a structure, historic in 
the annals of the Methodist church, 



were removed the old mortar adhered 
so firmly and well that the stones 
broke where mortar would not yield. 
The home is now owned by 

Respecting this house I. D. Rupp 
says : "Martin Meylin built (1740) what 
was then called a palace of sandstone. 
It was, in 1742, one of the most state- 
ly mansions of the county; and as the 
Mennonites were a plain people, and 
Martin Meylin, an active member, the 
house was not only considered too 
palacelike, but the appearance of it 
might, as they reasoned, strengthen 



32 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



their enemies in prejudicing the 
government against them — they had 
been virtually charged with disloyalty 
— 'determined not to obey the lawful 
authority of government — that they 
were disposed to organize a govern- 
ment of their own.' The bishop, Hans 
Tschantz, with his elders and assist- 
ance, having repaired to the humble 
log cottage hard by this "stately man- 
sion" and organized the meeting, him- 
self presiding over the deliberations of 
the assembled. Martin was first 
questioned, upon conscience, to open- 
ly declare what his intentions were in 



ies, it was resolved that Alartin be 
kindly reprimanded ; to which he sub- 
mitted — and thus the matter was 
ended, and all parted as brethren." 

Resuming our journey, our destina- 
tion being Strasburg we pass through 
a densely populated section with 
smaller, richer, more productive 
farms and fields, through the village 
of Lampeter with its narrow street, ■ 
past Edisonville where in an old grist 
mill genius and enterprise have har- 
nessed pretty Pequea creek to electric 
machinery to become a light bearer 
to Strasburg, Quarryville and vicin- 




MAIN STREET, STRASBURG 



erecting so large, so gorgeous a dwell- 
ing — reminding him of the rumor 
some twelve or thirteen years ago ; 
and lately, of the prejudices excited 
against the Germans. He stated, he 
consulted only his comfort, and that 
he had no sinster views. Next he was 
reminded that, in their view, the house 
was rather too showy for a Mennonite. 
The question was, whether he de- 
served severe censure, if not suspens- 
sion, from church principles, for this 
oversight. After some concessions, 
and mutual forbearance, by the part- 



ity. We soon enter ancient, elongated, 
peaceful, tidy, wellshaded Strasburg 
unmarred, undisturbed by the smoke 
and noise and other accompaniments 
of large manufacturing plants. Stras- 
burg an old German settlement dating 
from 1733, incorporated 1816, former- 
ly known as Bettelhausen or Beggars- 
town is situated on the "King's High- 
way" laid out before the Revolution. 
One may form an idea of its scenes of 
past life and activity froni' the fact 
that in place of the three hotels that 
cater to the public now, at one time 



PART V. FROM QUARRYVILLE TO LANCASTER 



33 




THE SHROY HOME (PROPERTY OF PROF. J. I,. SHROY) 



half a score (one informant says 
twenty-two) were kept busy. One 
sees and hears in fancy the heavy, 
groaning, grinding, rumbHng Cones- 
toga teams with their proud and 
skilled teamsters, trailing through 
the place or stopping at the hostelries. 
But times have changed. Ttie busi- 
ness that once passed through the 
place is no more or has found for it- 



self other channels. It has a business 
feeder and outlet in its unique rail- 
road to Leaman Place on which the 
combination engineer, fireman, brake- 
man and conductor will stop his train 
anywhere for anybody. 

The schoolmaster has been at work 
here. Scarcely five per cent, of the 
conversation is in the Pennsylvania 
German dialect though the place was 




MENNONITE MEETING HOUSE, STRASBURG 



-3-4 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




MARTIN MYLIN HOUSE 

settled by Germans and only one 
English speaking family lived in it 
during the Revolutionary penod. It 
has had its McCarter's Academy, 
founded 1839 and enjoying in its day 
a national reputation, its Squire Mc- 
Phail, valiant champion of education, 
its noted public school man Thomas 
H. Burrovk^es. Sons of hers like Rev. 
Dr. Duffield, Dr. B. F. Shaub, Prof. 
G. W. Hull, of Millersville, Prof. 
John L. Shroy, of Philadelphia, have 
brought fame to the place. One of 
her daughters was the mother of 
Simon Cameron. 

The story goes that at one time ex- 
cavations were begun looking to the 
erection of Normal School buildings 
to be abandoned again however, per- 
haps according to an authority be- 
cause farmers feared midnight raids 
on their orchards by the students. 

Strasburg lays claim to the honor 
of having sent the first petition to the 
State Legislature in favor of general 
education leading to the adoption of 
the public school system. It has its 
historic Lutheran church of colonial 
style housing one of the oldest organs 
in the county. 

Turning our faces cityward and tak- 
ing the smoke pillar to the northwest 



as our objective point, we pass 
through Lampeter and Willow Street 
across the Pequea and Mill Creek 
and in less than an hour find ourselves 
crossing the Conestoga at Engleside. 

To our left is the Engleside power 
house capable of developing 8000 
horsepower and supplying power to 
the Traction Company and many pri- 
vate consumers. 

We are now near the head of navi- 
gation of the Conestoga, reaching 
from Reigart's landing about 2 miles 
up stream to the Susquehanna, a dis- 
tance of more than seventeen miles, 
proposed 1805, accomplished about 
1828 and abandoned over 40 years ago. 
The river was made navigable by 
means of nine dams and locks. The 
pools produced varied in length from 
one to three miles, in width from 250 
to 350 feet; the lifts from seven to 
nine feet; the locks 100 feet by 22 
could accomodate boats and rafts 90 
feet long. 

In spite of the checkered career of 
the enterprise the river for a time saw 
a great amount of business, fourteen 
rafts and arkloads of coal and lumber 
for example arriving at Lancaster in 
one day in 1829. But the universal law 
of change destroyed all this business. 

Going north on Queen street on our 
way to Center Square, we see the 
stately and humble, the new and old 
in close proximity as in other parts of 
the city. To our right we notice three 
cemeteries — Greenwood, opened with- 
in recent years. Woodward Hill, 1850, 
Zion, 185 1. A little farther on we pass 
the Southern Market House back of 
which are situated St. Marys R. C. 
Church, Academy and Orphan 
Asylum closely linked and coeval 
with the history of the city of Lancas- 
ter. Not far distant on South Prince 
street is the celebrated house erected 
over thirty years ago from excava- 
tions up ready for occupancy in ten 
hours by Dr. Mishler of proprietary 
medicine fame. A minute more and 
our car stops at the square. 



35 



PART VI 



A Trip to the "East End" 




In preparing this sketch ' we have freely 
used among other sources, "The Picturesque 
and Historical East End" compiled by Hon. 
W. U. Hensel. Where the language has been 
reproduced quotation marks have been in- 
serted. — Ed. 

F ALL these picturesque 
routes, none is more 
beautiful than — nor any 
so interesting from a 
historical point of view, 
as— the road which leads 
from Lancaster City to 
the Borough of Christi- 
ana, on the limits of the county, 
where it joins Chester. This line is 
about nineteen miles long, and tra- 
verses a region through which some 
•of the oldest highways passed ; a large 
part runs by the Philadelphia and 
Lancaster turnpike, the earliest mac- 
adamized road in the United States." 
"Starting up North Queen street, it 
turns east at' the P. R. R. passenger 
station, passes over Chestnut street to 
the city limits, and reaches the old 
turnpike at a point near the city reser- 
voir. County Prison, Hosoital, Work 
House and Almshouse. The county 



prison is a fine specimen of feudal 
architecture. It was planned by Havi- 
land the famous jail architect of the 
period 1859-60. At Lancaster, Eng- 
land, one is confronted by its proto- 
type. The memorial bronze lion and 
fountain on the grounds of Reservoir 




BLANCHE NEVIN FOUNTAIN 
COURTESY LANCASTER BOARD OF TRADE 

Park are the gift to Lancaster City 
by Miss Blanche Nevin, painter, 
poetess and sculptress, a tribute to 
the memory of her father, Rev. John 
Williamson Nevin, D. D., the greatest 
theologian of the United States in the 
middle of the XIX century." 

"Immediatel}^ south of the junction 
of the city and suburban line lie the 



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PENNSVEVANIA K. R. STATION 



"COURTESY LAXCASTER BOARD OP TRADE 



36 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY A TROLLEY WINDOW 




THIRD COTTNTY PRISON (ERECTED 1851) 



noble cluster of brick buildings which 
comprise the Stevens Institute, a 
technical and training" school for 
friendless boys, regardless of color, 
founded on a bequest of Hon. Thad- 
deus Stevens. The fine farm around 
the public institutions belongs to the 
county; the almshouse, with the 
broad, placid Conestoga far below its 
south front, occupies one of the most 
eligible residential sites around Lan- 
caster." 



"Descending the long hill which 
leads to the creek, by groups of beau- 
tiful suburban homes, an exquisite 
park to the right of the track is seen 
extending far to the south. The 
Conestoga is crossed upon an 
bridge of concrete and iron, 
which the passenger obtains a view 
up and down the stream." 

"During the War of the Revolution, 
this spot on the river was known as 
'Deering's Ford,' and it was almost 



open 
from 




COUNTY HOUSE AND ASYLUM 
COUBTESY LANCASTER BOARD OF TRADE 



PART VI. A TRIP TO THE "EAST END" 



continuously thronged with the pas- 
sage of wagon trains and herds of 
cattle, destined to the army quarter- 
master, marching and returning 
troops and other military movements. 
Here the American Congress forded 
the water in 1777, when it hastily 
moved from Philadelphia to York, via 
Lancaster, holding one session here." 
"The magnificient nine-arch stone 
bridge, which carries the turnpike 
across the stream, was the enterprise 
of Abraham Witmer, a public-spirited 
citizen, who, in 1795, obtained the 
Legislative charter enabling him to 
erect it and to charge tolls until such 
time as he was recompensed or the 
county bought it; which it did in 1817 
at a cost of $58,444.41. The beauty 
and endurance of this structure have 
commanded encomiums from archi- 
tects and engineers." It is a monu- 
ment to the solidity, honesty, disin- 
terestedness of the county's earlier 
citizens. The bridge bears the follow- 
ing inscriptions : 

ERECTED BY 

ABRAHAM WITMER 

MDCCXCIX— MDCCCI 

A LAW OP AN ENLIGHTENED 

COMMONWEALTH 

THOMAS MIFFLIN, GOVERNOR, 

SANCTIONED THIS MONUMENT 

OP THE PUBLIC SPIRIT 

OP AN 

INDIVIDUAL 

61 M TO P 



THIS BRIDGE WAS BUILT BY 
ABM. WITMER AND MARY, HIS 

WIFE, AND COMPLETED IN 
THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1800. 



"The miniature railroads to be seen 
running down either bank of the 
stream, convey passengers to. Rocky 
Springs and People's Bathing Park — 
two notable recreation resorts", hav- 
ing direct trolley connection with the 
city. "A little further down the wind- 
ing Conestoga are Indian Hill, Wil- 
iamson Park and 'Rockford' long the 
country seat of Gen. Hand, aid-de 
camp to General Washington, and 
Lancaster's most famous Revolution- 
ary soldier." 

Immediately east of the bridge is 
the Bridgeport hotel probably built 
1758-1760, once a famous stopping 
place for Pittsburg wagons, the center 
of a land boom in 1819 when lots were 
laid out and disposed of but the 
hopes were blasted. The roads fork- 
ing here, we follow the turnpike leav- 
ing to the left the "Old Philadelphia 
Road" laid out 1730, the shortest 
route between Lancaster and Phila- 
delphia and known for 60 years as the 
great road of the county, the famous 
turnpike on which we travel not hav- 
ing been finished until 1794. About 
two miles east of Bridgeport there 
branches off from the Old Philadel- 
phia Road the "Horse Shoe Road" 
which was laid out in 1738 to connect- 
the town Lancaster and Coventry 
Iron Works on French creek and 
along which sprang up "Heller's 
Church", New Holland, Blue Ball, 
Bangor, Churchtown and Morgan- 
town. 

About a mile beyond Bridgeport we 
get a good view of the county seat 



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WITMER S BRIDGE 



•OOtlBTESY LANCASTER BOAED OP TEADE 



38 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



profiled against the sky with its 
steeples, stacks and pipes and present- 
ly pass Mellinger's Meeting House, 
a place of public worship since 1757, 
attached to which is the oldest grave- 
yard in the township, surveyed and 
reserved as a burial place long before 
the church was built, the resting place 
of the remains of pioneer Palatines 
and their descendants. We now enter 
East Lampeter, one of the wealthiest 
and most populous townships of the 
county, settled about 1720, organized 
1841, but originally a part of Lam- 
peter laid out 1729, a district without 
great landscape beauty or rich manu- 
factories, devoted to agriculture in- 
cluding truck farming. 

"Just east of the junction with the 
'Strasburg' pike three miles from the 
city a stone viaduct carries the road- 
way over a ravine, which attests the 
substantial construction of public 
work years ago. Another strong and 
handsome arched bridge spans Mill 
Creek at Greenland, and near the 
breast of the-millpond, to the right, a 
group of buildings, formerly known 
as Eshleman's Mill— the birthplace of 
Col. B. Frank Eshleman — now houses 
the Yeates School, a notable Episco- 
pal academy for boys, founded by 
Miss 'Kitty' Yeates, a daughter of one 
of the earlier justices of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania." 

A half mile beyond there stands 
an old dwelling house, on the south 
side, for many years the 'Running 
Pump' hotel now George Brubaker's 
property, where man and beast may 
still slake their thirst at the ceaseless 
fountain. We presently reach the 
summit of a hill affording a splendid 
view. "It takes in immediately and 
in the nortli'est foreground, the 
Splendid 'Mill Creek Country' with 
the stately rows of Lombardy pop- 
lars in the center of the scene, that 
indicate the way from 'Gibbons' Mill' 
to Bird-in-Hand and far away, a road 
to Ronk's. Thence are spread out to 
the patient tourist's eye the great 
expanse of Eastern Lancaster county, 
from the Furnace Hills on the Leba- 



non border far northward, to the 
Mine Ridge south, with the Welsh 
Mountains in the middle distance, 
eastward, and back to the clustered 
spires of Lancaster, forming the 
western sky line. Chestnut Hill, far 
on the sunset side, comes into view 
and frames the western border of the 
scene as the car reaches the top of 
the hill. Away to the north and 
northeast are Witmer, Bird-in-Hand 
and Ronks, marked by stately trees." 

I n 1749 Friends re-erected i n 
Bird-in-Hand a log meeting house 
which had been originally erected in 
Leacock in 1732 and which was dis- 
placed by the present brick meeting 
house erected in 1790. This was built 
around and over the old log building 
which, on the completion of the new 
building was taken out log by log 
through the door. Migration thinned 
out this meeting over 50 years ago 
and made it the parent of the flour- 
ishing Illinois meeting. The Bird-in- 
Hand hotel which has preserved its 
original name to the present is one of 
the oldest stands in the couti'.y hav- 
ing been the headquarters of the first 
surveyors of the old road in 1734. 
Four buildings have been erected suc- 
cessively upon the same site and the 
same cellar walls. Prior to 1862 when 
the Reading and Columbia Railroad 
was built, Bird-in-Hand was the ship- 
ping station for the northern section 
of the county. Not unlike other sec- 
tions it has seen business come and 
go a number of times. 

For about a mile we pass through 
the borders of the Amish section 
with its quaint characteristic customs, 
dress and colors on buildings. At the 
Amish school house near Soudersburg 
one may see the children of these 
primitive people in their unique uni- 
forms. "Plalf a mile to the north a 
group of Lombardy poplars mark and 
hide the old Steele mansion, where 
George Whitfield, the English evan- 
gelist was a guest one hundred and 
fifty years ago, and where dwelt the 
collector of the Port at Philadelphia, 



PART VI. A TRIP TO THE "EAST END" 



39 



under President Madison, Captain 
John Steele." 

We now approach Soudersburg 
where Hattel Varman built the first 
house 1727 and Friends conducted 
meetings prior to 1732. We notice to 
our right a Methodist church of his- 
toric significance as marking one of 
the earliest Methodist settlements in 
the county, services being held here 
as early as 1791 and a house of wor- 
ship erected in 1802 replaced by a new 
building in 1872. Passing a fine brick- 
farm house on the hill near which 



the Pequea, died 1716 and was buried 
in Carpenter's cemetery selected by 
herself and located near the center of 
her possessions a mile south of the 
village of Paradise. Her descendants 
are counted by thousands among 
whose illustrious names are those of 
Gen. J. F. Reynolds, Admiral William 
Reynolds and Admiral W. S. Schley. 
To the left yellow tenements come to 
view belonging to the "Park" seed 
and flower farm. A short distance be- 
3^ond also on the left side is an impos- 
ing three story brick dwelling, the 




HISTORIC HOUSES BV THE WAY 



stands a giant balsam poplar brought 
as an ox "wattle" from Virginia in 
1812 and the scion of numerous pro- 
geny in the neighborhood, we soon 
cross the Pequea on a fine stone arch 
bridge and enter Paradise township, 
organized 1843 — ^ ^^'^^ fertile undulat- 
ing agricultural section. La Park, 
Paradise and Leaman place are now 
before us, bordering the old turnpike 
for several miles. 

The first settler in Paradise town- 
ship Avas Mary Ferree, a French PTu- 
guenot who came to the county in 
1709, a widow with six children. She 
acquired 2300 acres of land south of 



summer home of Hon. C. I. Landis, 
President Judge' of the Courts of Lan- 
caster county. 

iAt the east end of Paradise is a 
beautiful house a part of "Oak Hill," 
the estate and home of Hon. J. Hay 
Brown, one of the historic mansions 
of the county, bui-lt 1817 by Di. John 
S. Carpenter, owned subsequently by 
prominent families and at one time 
the seat of a select school for girls. 
Close by is a two-story brick building 
formerly Parad'se Academy and later 
a soldiers' orphans' school. . Across 
from Judge-Brown's west gateways is 
a Presbyterian church erected 1840 an 



40 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



offspring of the Leacock Presbyterian 
church situated a few miles north on 
the "old road" and a mile west of In- 
tercourse in Leacock township. This 
congregation, regularly organized 
1 741, worshipped for a time in a log 
house erected 1739 which was re- 
placed by the present building in 1759. 
The congregation was connected with 
the Pequea church for a time and 
served by its pastors among whom 
was the celebrated Rev. Dr. Smith of 
whom we will speak later. 

As we proceed we notice far to the 
southeast on the summit of the 
wooded Mine Ridge, "a pile of brick, 
which, 'grand, gloomy and peculiar' 
dominates the landscape. It capital- 
izes the summit of the "Great Divide" 
in Lancaster county, separating sub- 
stantially the 'Upper' and 'Lower' 
ends — the limestone and the barren 
lands, the light and heavy timber, the 
German - Swiss Palatine sects and 
'plain people' from the Scotch -Irish 
Presbyterian, Quaker and Baptist — it 
indicates an absolute differentiation 
in social, political and religious life, 
different ways of living and different 
ways of thinking." 

"The lofty iron and brick chimney 
'stack' on Mine Ridge, to be seen for 
so many miles around, is a relic. The 
lands immediately about it were de- 
vastated, long years ago, by noxious 
fumes from the smelting ores. Copper 
was mined here before the Revolu- 
tion; and nickel, with profit, at a later 
period." The late proprietor Joseph 
Wharton reaped a fortune here. 

In Leaman Place a railroad village, 
the junction of the unique Strasburg 
railroad is a spacious mansion, the 
Leaman homestead, from which four 
notable sons went forth. ''Charles 
Leaman a Presbyterian Missionary in 
China; Henry and Rosh are eminent 
physicians in Philadelphia and Wil- 
liam (deceased) was the most intel- 
lectual personage of his generation at 
the Lancaster Bar." 

After crossing the stream beyond 
Leaman Place the country seat of 
Silas Eshleman is passed on the left 



hand side. "To the right and south 
of the trolley line, along the base of 
the Mine Ridge, lie the famous 'Lon- 
don lands," a large tract taken up 
nearly two centuries ago by a London 
company — whence London run and 




London Grove tavern of earlier days. 
On the picturesque "Wolf Rock" 
road, which leads across the hill, is 
the site of the grist mill, distillery 
and hemp mill built by Frederick 
Wise in 1760." "The imposing manor 



PART VI. A TRIP TO THE "EAST END" 



41 



house, which crowns the hill on the 
left, inside a wooded lawn is the house 
of Mr. N. Milton AVoods. President of 
the First National Bank of Lan- 
ter, and one of the many rich men of 
the count}^ This splendid house was 
built b}^ Dr. I.eaman — preacher, phy- 
sician and professor at Lafayette Col- 
lege." 

Just north of- Rotary Station, at Wil-' 
liamstown;' is a hilT top from which, 
with a strong' glass and vi\-rd imagina- 
tion, on a clear day, one can see 'the 
whole thing' from Compass to Swatara, 
having glimpses of Chester, Berks, 
Lebanon, Dauphin and Yoik, and 
overlooking half of Lancaster county." 

From AA'illiamstown to Gap the 
trolley line leaves the turnpike giving 
us a better chance to study the fields 
with the varied crops. A short dis- 
tance beyond the thriving young vil- 
lage of Kinzer we enter historic Sal- 
isbury township, embracing the u})- 
per end of the Pequea Valley en- 
closed by the Welsh mountains on 
the North and the Aline and Gap hills 
on the South meeting on the East. 



"The fine farm which sweeps along ' 
the hillside for nearly half a mile is 
the ancestral country seat of Mr. P. 
Eckert Slaymaker, president of the 
People's National Bank and Trust 
Company and one of the most effi- 
cient projectors of the Lancaster and 
Eastern line.'' 

Hon. W. U. Ilensel's "Bleak 
House" to the right, rioted for its 
many social gatherings and hospitable 
entertainments has among its curios 
three well preserved famous Revolu- 
tionary tavern signs — " Grapes," 
"Three Crowns" and the cocked 
"Hat." -Half a mile farther on we 
pass a farm "house built about 1790, 
rendered notable by mantels of stucco 
and of Delft tiles, such as have not 
been made for one hundred and 
twenty years, and by a blue and white 
marble tiled pavement forming the 
basis of a pillared porch, 70x14 feet. 
These it is rumored, were originally 
shipped to President Washington, for 
Mount Vernon, by him declined and 
sold for freight in New York, bought 
and erected here" by Jasper Yates a 
justice of the Supreme Court of 
Pennsylvania. Hon. Amos Slaymaker, 




ENTR.\NCE TO BELI.EVUE PRESBVTEKIAN CHURCH 



42 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



a member of Congress built the stone 
mansion to the right of the trolley 
line as it returns to the turnpike 
famous as the " Slaymaker stage 
tavern and also "White chimneys" 
now the "possession and home of 
Samuel R. Slaymaker, lock manufac- 
turer and one of Lancaster's most 
successful business men." As we ap- 
proach Gap we pass the Kennedy, 
K a u f¥ m a n and Ellmaker farms, 
famous "Rising Sun" tavern, "Sunny- 
side," "Pleasant View" a popular 
summer boarding house, and historic 
Bellevue Presbyterian church. 

Gap "has been a place of consider- 
able importance ever since the first 
settlement of the Pequea and Cones- 
toga Valleys. It was situated on the 
main thoroughfare, leading from the 
landing place at New Castle, Del., to 
the new settlements to the westward 
and one dav's journey from the for- 
mer place, and consequently it was 
the stopping place over night of the 
large parties of immigrants from the 
Emerald Isle and from the valleys of 
the Rhine. Here in the Gap are the 
traditional Penn Rock, Penn Spring, 
and the Shawnee garden and the bed 
of the old Indian reliquiae from 
which fifty-seven cart-loads of coal 
and ashes were hauled out in the 
year 1873. That Willian Penn visited 
the Gap in the year 1700 while on his 
journey to Conestoga, there cannot 
be any doubt." 

Salisbury township, lying northeast 
of Gap, deriving its name from Salis- 
bury, England, surveyed about 1700, 
settled 1710 having but a few resident 
landowners in 1720, organized 1729. 
was in its early history a stronghold 
of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, Episco- 
palians and Quakers. As in other 
sections of the county the Germans 
have gradually spread over the town- 
shio and acquired the farm land. 

The Pequea Presbyterian church 
was organized about 1724. The first 
meeting house built about u years 
later was located in the present bur}^- 
ing ground of the church about a mile 
north of White Horse village (Pequea 



postofifice) on the old Philadelphia 
road. One of the most noted minis- 
ters of this church was Rev. Robert 
Smith, born in Ireland 1723, con- 
verted 1738 under the preacliing of 
Whitfield, ordained 'and installed over 




the Pequea and Leacock churches 
IMarch 25, 1757, a relation only sev- 
ered l3y his death in 1793. Ke con- 
ducted a Latin school in connection 
with his ministry of which Hon. W. 
v. Hensel said in an oration : here 



PART VI. A TRIP TO THE "EAST END' 



42 




WILLIAM PENN SPRING 



"a great part of the clergy of this 
State received the elements of their 
education or perfected their theologi- 
cal studies." One of Smith's 

pupils, John AlcAIillen, became the 
apostle of Presbyterianism in West- 
ern Pennsylvania, founded Jefferson 
College, and from a log cabin in 
Washington, sent more young men 
into the ministry than any other in- 
dividual on the continent before the 
days of Theological Seminaries. From 
the loins of that same Robert Smith 
sprang a son, John Blair, who became 
President both of Ham;)den Sidney 
and Union Colleges, and that eldest 
son, Samuel. whose 'birth he reverently 
chronicled as "asked of God," lived to 
become Professor of Moral Philos- 
ophy, reorganized Princeton College 
when the incidents of the Revolu- 
tionarvWar has disoersed its students 
and faculty, married Withersooon's 
daughter and succeeded him in the 
Presidency." 

Leaving Gap "the road makes a 
steep climb to get over the ridge." 
The clock tower and the memorial 
over the Penn Spring are soon 



reached and passed. "Down the New- 
port pike, wdiere Stoltzfus's pink barn 
now refreshes the e3^e, was the 'iHen- 
derson tavern' of Colonial times, 
across the fields, to the southwest 
was the famous Bailey printery until 
1815. Francis Bailey, who did the 
printing for the Continental Council, 
and whose presses turned out Avagon 
loads of 'shinplaster' currency, pub- 
lished the Freeman's Journal. 

We soon pass into Salisbury the 
first settled and earliest organized 
township in Lancaster county and 
parallelling the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road in a few minutes reach "Chris- 
t'ana, a tovv-n of nearly 1000 popula- 
tion, w'th the best 'sidewalks in the 
countv."' The land on which it 
stands was granted to twenty-one ser- 
vants so-called, who, having served 
their masters to the end of their term 
of service, were, under the provincial 
laws, entitled to fifty acres of land 
each : hence it was known as the "Ser- 
vants' Tract." At the time of the 
building of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, in 1852, not a half dozen build- 
ings stood on the present borotigb 



44 



SEEING LA.N'CASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



site. The place was named Chris- 
tiana for Christiana Noble, the wife 
of William Noble, by whom the place 
was founded." 

"The name Christiana is associated 
with an ante-bellum event scarcely 
less known in political history than 



was killed, his son badly wounded, 
the federal deputies-marshall dis- 
persed and the fugitive escaped to 
Canada. Scores of negroes and a half 
dozen sympathetic Quakers were 
taken to Philadelphia to be tried for 
treason, the eyes of the, country were 




GAP CLOCK TOWER 



John Brown's raid and the Harper's 
Ferry riot. In September, 1851, the 
first blood shed in the United States 
in resistance to the odious fugitive 
slave law was along the "long lane" 
leading from the State or Valley road 
to the Noble road about a mile west. 
Gorsuch, the Maryland slave owner. 



for a time focused on the scene of the 
memorable 'Christiana Riot.' It de- 
termined the election of a governor, 
and the course of Pennsylvania poli- 
tics for some years." 

Christiana also marks the birth- 
place of one of America's most emi- 
nent professors, physicians, surgeons 



PART VI. A TRIP TO THE "EAST END" 



45 




THE OLD SADSnURY FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE 

and authors the late D. Mayes Ag-ncw, 
M. D., LL. D., of Philadelphia, Pa. 

Salisbury township was settled by 
Friends and Scotch-Irish, Presbyter- 
ians, the first land being located in 
1691 by John Kennedy, probably the 
first to be located in Lancaster 
county. A log meeting house was 
built * by the Friends about a mile 
north of Christiana in 1725 which was 



replaced by the present stone struc- 
ture in 1748. This house had orig- 
inally galleries, was once on fire, 
once burnt down, served as a place of 
worship by the Amish for a time and 
is used now only on funeral occa- 
sions. 

Here at the county's borders our 
trip must end! We might by way of 
Coatesville and West Chester con- 
tinue our trolley trip to Philadelphia 
or traverse the lower end of the 
county by taking any one of a num- 
ber of possibilities before us. "South- 
ward, along the Octoraro on the bor- 
der lands of Chester and Lancaster 
county, one can travel by murmuring 
brook, placid pool, dashing torrent 
and foaming waterfall, through 
wooded gorges, to the INIaryland line, 
amid forest, meadow, dairy and farm 
scenery such as art has striven to 
cc|ral in Fairmount and Central Parks 
and Nature has not surpassed along 
the A\'issahickon or the Hudson." 



.iftJ^ 





;LD " XtlOT HOLSe' PETE WOODS AND S iM HOPKINS (wiTH THE ( i 

TWO OF THE COLOHED PARTICIPANTS. 






CHRISTIANA RIOT HOUSE 



46 



PART VII 



A Trip to Terre Hill 




F T E R going north on 
Queen street and east at 
the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road depot we turn a few 
right angles until we 
reach New Holland ave- 
nue, the beginning of the 
New Holland turnpike 
the historic higliAvay to Blue iJall in- 
corporated 1810 and completed 1825. 
As we proceed we shall notice pres- 
ently to our right, the buildings of the 
Lancaster Cork Works and at a dis- 
tance a standpipe crowning the east 
•end of the city ; to the left are located 
Lancaster and St. Alary's cemeteries 
in use about 60 and 50 years respec- 
tively and the 1000-foot building of 
the Lancaster Silk Mill. 

We now notice the two branches of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad converging 
and, passing under a bridge of the 
•one, the Cutoff line, we presently 
reach at the McGrann farm the Ross- 
mere suburban tracks leading north- 
ward to Rossmere, the ball grounds 
and returning to the city by way of 
the stock yards. 

We are now in Manheim, one of the 
■original townships with boundaries 
but slightly changed, a rich, produc- 
tive, slightly undulating farming sec- 
tion lying between the two Cones- 
togas. We shall say more of the 
township on our Lititz trip. 

We turn away from the turapike to 
the right at Eckerts or Eden Hotel 
near the village schoolhouse, made 
conspicious with its yellow .and lilue 
colors, cross the Conestoga and after 
a short detour through the fields re- 
turn to the pike at Zook's Corner. In 
crossing the stream we orobably no- 
ticed the Eden Paper Mills to our left 
at a neat iron structure, Binkley 
Bridge, the original of which ante- 
dated by a few years historic Witmer 
Bridge. At Zook's Corner we notice 
the McGrann poultry farm to the left 



and presently to our right on a pleas- 
ing and prominent eminence the 
braiik McGrann residence. 




THE ORIGINAL BINKLEY BRIDGE 

Binkley Bridge was probably the 
first stone bridge in Lancaster county. 
It cost about $17,000 and brought its 
originator into straitened circum- 
stances. Pie was not aHowed to make 
it a toll-bridge and eventually trans- 
ferred the bridge to the public. It was 
damaged by a freshet in 1857 ^"^ torn 
awav in 1868. 

We cross the upper end of East 
Lampeter township and enter Upper 
Leacock. Our road, running along a 
ridge, the water-shed between the Con- 
estoga and Mill Creek, affords most 
of the time charming views reaching 
to a hazy distance — Furnace Hill, 
Ephrata Hill, Brecknock Hills, Welsh 
Mountain being in sight most of the 
way to Terre Hill. 



PART VII. A TRIP TO TBRRE HILL 




STREET SCENE, INTERCOURSE, PA. 



Among" the early settlers of Upper 
Leacock, formed out of Leacock in 
1843, were Jacob Bushong, who set- 
tled near Heller's church the ancestor 
of a numerous, widely - scattered 
family, Emanuel Carpenter, himself 
noted and the head of a noted family, 
on whose land according to tradition 
the county's first court was opened to 
be later' adjourned to Postlethwaite's 
place. Hans Good who acquired in 
1734, 300 acres of land lyirig between 
Bareville and Mill Creek which he 
sold ten years later to Andrew Bare 
ancestor of the Lancaster book firm. 
Bare & Sons. Hans Graf who in seek- 
ing lost horses found Elysian fields 
which he settled 1718 now known as 
Groff's Dale. Isaac LeFevre son-in- 
law of the widow Madam Ferre and 
others. 

Leacock, lying southeast of LTpper 
Leacock, is with it an Amish settle- 
ment in a rich agricultural commun- 
ity, crossed near its center by the old 
Philadelphia road. Its most impor- 
tant village is Intercourse, 5 miles to 
our right, formerly known as Cross 
Keys, the name of its hotel, built it 
is said, in 1754. The change of name 
was made in 1814 when a landowner. 



George Brungard, in an unsuccessful 
venture, laid out a village of over one 
hundred and fifty lots which were dis- 
posed of b}^ lottery. 

About a mile west of Intercourse is 
the historic Leacock Presbyterian 
church, to which reference was made 
in a previous article. 

As we approach Mechanicsburg we 
notice about a mile south on elevated 
ground Heller's church, built i860 
and ofiicially known as Salem church. 
It occupies the site of an original 
small log structure with seats of slabs 
and a floor of bare ground, the earli- 
est Reformed church in Lancaster 
county. According to a paper in the 
cornerstone, "This congregation was 
founded in the year 1722, by a num- 
ber of German Reformed fathers. 
The first house was built in 1722, re- 
paired in 1802, rebuilt and enlarged 
by the same congregation. "The Luth- 
eran church held services here also un- 
til they built their own place of wor- 
ship in the village in 1838. 

Mechanicsburg, clean and peaceful, 
is the chief village and business cen- 
ter of the township over a century old 
and so named 60 years ago on account 
of the mechanics its machine shops 



48 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



drew to the place. P'rom this point 
past Leola and through Bareville our 
ride takes us through a rosary-Hke 
chain of attractive homes. Bareville 
named after its first settlers can point 
with pride to the Bareville Trustee As- 




Welsh Mountains made famous by 
the notorious Abe Buzzard gang 
whose haunt was at Blue Rock 4 
miles southeast of New Holland, a 
stigma happily removed by the labors 
of the Mennonite Industrial Home 
near Alt. Airy. 

X^ear the rotary sta- 
tion we get fuller 
views to the East. 
South and West and 
notice also the tracks 
of the Lancaster and 
Downingtown R a i 1- 
road, completed t o 
New Holland about 
1876 and to Lancas- 
ter, 1890. At 
tary station 
serve 
our 
from 
This 
Peters 
from 



the 



ro- 

we ob- 

a road crossing 

tracks obliquely 

the southeast. 

is the historic 

road leading 

White Horse 



NF.W HOLLAND SCHOOL HOUSE AND STREET SCENES 



sociation, known as the Bareville Lit- 
erary Society, organized 1843, incor- 
poraLed 1849. which has had a strong 
moulding influence on the community. 
To our right we notice wooded ris- 
ing ground, the western end of the 



near Spring^arden, 
past S p r i n g V i 1 1 e, 
across Mill Creek at 
Huber's Mill, consti- 
tuting the pike for a 
short distance and 
then turning north- 
ward toward T a 1- 
mage and beyond. 

A short distance 
beyond the rotary 
station we enter Earl 
township, one of the 
original townships of 
1729, so named in 
honor of Hans Graf 
the busy clatter of 
whose mill cheered 
the neighbors when 
the county was 
founded. Nearly all 
vestiges of the mill, 
o n c e the objective 
primitive roads, which 
junction of the Cocalico 
miles north- 
decades ago. 



point of the 

stood at the 

and Conestoga, several 

west of us disappeared 

Not far from this place is Hinkletown 

on the Paxtang road, named after 



PART VII. A TRIP TO TERRE HILL 



49 



George Hinkle who was licensed to 
keep a tavern there before the Revo- 
lution. A part of the place was for- 
merly known as Swopestown on ac- 
conut of the Swabians (Swopes) liv- 
ing- there. 

NEW HOLLAND 

New Holland, (a name suggestive 
of Hollander settlers) variously 
known also in its earlier days as Earl- 
town, Sau Schwamm, 
and New Design, a 
thriving, elongated, 
well-located borough, 
housed along a sin- 
uous street and the 
oldest, largest and 
most important town 
of Earl township,, 
was settled in 1728 
by John Diffenderffer, 
(ancestor of historian 
Frank R. Diffenderf- 
fer) laid out in 1760 
and incorporated i n 
1895. 

One imagines the 
Conestoga teams 
threading their way 
amid the trees, 
stumps a n d around 
the mud puddles. The 
effort t o straighten 
out and level the road 
as indicated by the 
old houses, at times 
hugging the road and 
under the proper 
level, has not been 
fully successful, will 
not be — why should 
it be, since a quaint 
charm and attractive- 
ness is afforded not 
otherwise obtainable. 
The place is prosperous and rejoices 
in its silk mill and iron industries. 

Time was when a justice of the 
peace who was also a member of the 
Colonial Assembly would walk bare- 
foot from New Holland to Lancaster 
and sit shoeless as a member of the 
Justices' Court. Times change,. 

New Holland may point with pride 



to the movement organized in 1786 
under the leadership of Rev. ^Melz- 
heimer, aided by one hundred and 
thirty-three original subscribers be- 
sides other contributors, to establish 
an English and German free school 
which was kept up until displaced by 
the Public School System. T h e 
house in which Ex-Congressman Isaac 
C. Hiester was born is still standing 




NEW HOLLAND CHURCHES 

on Main street opposite Brimmer ave- 
nue. Another noteworthy house is 
Roberts Folly a three story double 
brick building erected by ex-Congress- 
man and former U. S. Marshall A. E. 
Roberts. 

Among New Holland's illustrious 
sons were Dr. Diller Luther and Dr. 
Martin Luther for more than fifty 



50 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY A TROLLEY WINDOW 



years t^^'0 of Reading's prominent men 
and Congressmen Isaac E. Iliester and 
A. E. Roberts. 

But we must not fail to take a look 
at the two historic church buildings 
on the north side towards the east 
end of the town. 

The Lutheran church records go 
back to 1730, the first entry probably 
being made by Rev. John Casper 
Stoever. In 1744 four acres of land 
were acquired on which a church 
building of logs was erected, replaced 
by a stone structure in 1763 Avhich 
was remodeled in 1802 and itself o-ave 



the orderly arrangement, the close 
cropped, velvet}^ green, covering 
walks, graves and unoccupied ground. 

There is quite a suggestive con- 
trast between the condition of the 
cemeteries with their words and em- 
blems of Christian hope and the ap- 
pearance of a few graves in a family 
burying ground a mile or more to the 
north with their neglected weed cov- 
ered unsightly stones glorying in man. 

Beyond New Holland our attention 
is drawn to the hilly landscape we 
are approaching, shut off for a mo- 
ment to be spread out in minuter de- 




HOME 01' MISS BLANCHE NEVIN 



way to the present building in 185 1. 

The Reformed church record dates 
from 1746, but services were probably 
held prior to this. The congregation 
worshipped in the Zeltenreich church 
building about 2 miles southeast of 
New Holland until the present build- 
ing was erected in town in 1799. The 
centennial of the structure was 
marked by a remodeling in 1899. 

The cemeteries of the two churches 
adjoin and together form one of the 
loveliest rural burying grounds of the 
county with the gentle northern slope. 



tail as we cross the ridge and de- 
scend the gentle slope to Blue Bail — 
a ten minute ride from New Holland. 
This noted spot, situated at the junc- 
tion of the old Paxtang and Horse- 
shoe roads, so named on account of 
the blue balls of its hotel sign dating 
back to 1766 was already widely 
known prior to and in the Conestoga 
wagon era. Traffic from Lancaster, 
Harrisburg and beyond passed 
through on its way to Morgantown, 
Downingtown and points eastward. 
Residents of the place have not for- 



PART VII. A TRIP TO TERRE HILL 



51 



gotten that the historian Sydney 
George Fisher once confounded Blue 
Ball with another place and inciden- 
tally cast discredit upon it. 

We are now in East Earl founded 
185 1. Beyond to the east lies Caer- 
narvon one of the original townships 
settled prior to 1730 by the Welsh 
(hence the name) the home of busy 
scenes in the height of its iron indus- 
tries. The iron works in operation 
here prior to 1750 occasioned negro 
slavery and also drew white workmen 
into the neighborhood among whom 
were two prosperous brothers James 
and W^illiam Old. According to tra- 
dition James engaged as woodchop- 
per, a young Irishman, Robert Cole- 
man who was diligent in business 
and won the heart of his employer's 
daughter Ann Old. This union laid 
the foundation of the celebrated Cole- 
man family of Cornwall. 

It is here that the Conestoga rises, 
called creek by some though "river'' 
would be more appropriate in view of 
the fact that, according to historian 
Diffenderfifer, fifty of the most noted 
streams in history are of less volume. 
A t Churchtown resides Blanche 



Nevin the noted sculptress and 
daughter of Rev. Dr. J. W. Nevin, in 
the old ancestral homestead of the 
Windsor property previously the 
Jenkins estate and home of Congress- 
man Jenkins. 

TERRE HILL 

Resuming our trip we leave the 
road at Blue Ball and make a bee line 
for Terre Hill, through Weaverland, 
settled by the Webers, Martins, Wit- 
mers, Nissleys and others. To our 
right on an eminence are the church 
buildings and cemetery of the Weav- 
erland IVlennonite church, one of the 
largest congregations of this faith in 
the county. 

We gradually descend to the Con- 
estoga after crossing which on an iron 
bridge we climb about 158.7 feet in a 
distance of 7664 feet to the terminus 
of the line on Main street of Terre 
Hill, the youngest borough of the 
county, known in its early history as 
Fairville the first houses of Avhich 
were erected about 70 years ago. 

To get our bearings we will take a 
walk to and over a knoll west of the 
town to find hill and vale, hamlet and 





cone;stoga \klx,%y looking south from churchtown 



52 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




BRIDGE ACROSS THE CONESTOGA NEAR BLUE BALI, 



town, forest and farm spread before 
us like a vast panorama. New Hol- 
land, Blue Ball, Goodville, Church- 
town are soon located with the Welsh 
Mountains as a background. Turkey 
Hill and Center Church, Bowmans- 
ville in the valley, Stone Hill hiding 
Adamstown from view. Eohrata Hill 
at the foot of which lies historic Dun- 
kertown, Hahnstown, Hinkletown, 
Brownstown hill, Millway's Smoky 
Pillar, the hills forming the county's 
northern boundar}^ pass in review be- 
fore us — even the church steeples of 
the city of Lancaster are discernible 
with glasses on a clear day. 

In this territory, Swiss and Swa- 
bian, Palatine and Ouaker,Welsh and 
Dutch toiled shoulder to shoulder to 
lay the substantial foundations of our 
country's greatness. What an in- 
spiration thrills us as in fancy we en- 
ter the homes of the pioneer dwellers 
of the region, share their homely joys, 
their strenuous toil, their hopes and 
fears, their simple li^-es, their priva- 
tions, their gratitude. 

The rich farming section reaching 
from Blue Ball to Hinkletown and Iv- 



ing between the New Holland pike 
and the Conestoga once furnished an 
Indian hunting ground, covered with 
scrub oak which was burned over each 
vear. The hillsides and hill top once 
covered with chestnut sprouts and 
dotted with distilleries are n o w 
marked with productive farms, a 
campmeeting grove, a thriving bor- 
ough Avith pleasant homes, churches 
and schools. 

The story is told that once a much 
abused, long suffering wife of the 
hillside called on a neighbor a distil- 
ler on Sunday morning, showed him 
the bruises on her bare back and said, 
"This is what I get for the stuff you 
give my husband on Saturday." The 
distillery was closed and the distiller 
heloed to build a church. 

Brecknock township, lying to the 
north of Terre Hill, and quite hilly, 
has been called in parts Die Schweitz 
the Switzerland of the county. It was 
originally settled by the AA^elsh who 
gave it its name. 

The township has its rugged moun- 
tain scenery and curious rock forma- 
tions like The Devil's Cave and the 



PART VII. A TRIP TO TERRE HILL 



53 



Rock Cellar and during the Revolu- 
tionary AVar afforded a hiding place 
for those who tried to escape militia 
service. If time allowed we might go 
to Bowmansville and listen |-o some 
of the tales of pioneers in the commun- 
ity, of John Boehm who during the 
Revolutionary War left divine wor- 
ship on Sunday to pursue horse 
thieves whom he overtook, attacked 
with a piece of broken fence rail and 



left in triumoh after recovering the 
horses — of Elias Leinbach, brush- 
maker and repairer of clocks who in 
1850 made his vigorous though unsuc- 
cessful fight against the adoption of 
the public school system. 

But we may not linger here and re- 
trace our steps to the trolley station 
and return to the junction at Mechan- 
icsburg bound for Ephrata and 
Adamstown. 




BANGOR p. t. CHURCH, CHURCHTOWN 



54 



PART VIII 



A Trip to Ephrata and Adamstown 




EAVING the well kept 
waiting room with its 
neat surroundings at Me- 
chanicsburg we start on 
a 30 minute trip through 
the fields to Ephrata, the 
trolley line apparently 
avoiding centers of popu- 
lation along the way. We pass in a 
few minutes Centre Square near 
which to the left the Center Hotel did 
business in former days — the Browns- 
town and Farmersville road is crossed 
about midway betwen the two thriv- 
ing, hustling, business rivals. We 
pass the Conestoga Valley Park at the 
crossing of the Conestoga and at Dia- 
mond Station, the stopping place for 
Akron a thriving town on the hill half 
a mile away showing its enterprise by 
constructing a substantial walk from 
town to trolley. Avoiding the steep 
grades of the hills about us we 
wind around and at the well known 
Cocalico Hotel turn into the main 



street of historic Ephrata where we 
leave our car for a stroll through the 
town. We follow Main street down 
to the narrow, humped arch stone 
bridge erected over a hundred years 
ago spanning the historic Cocalico to 
the cloister buildings of the Seventh 
Day Baptist Society. As we approach 
these sacred grounds, world renowned 
for various activities that ceased a 
hundred years ago, we see a vision 
pass before us covering well nigh a 
century; John Conrad Beissel, immi- 
grant baker, religious enthusiast and 
superb leader, seeking a recluse's soli- 
tude, to be joined by admiring follow- 
ers ; men and women tilling the soil 
besides building humble cottages, and 
stately cloister buildings, paper, saw, 
flour, fulling and oil mills in which 
their increasing numbers find employ- 
ment, the crude printing press kept 
busy making half a hundred books 
(some heavy tomes) and continental 
money, the inmates of both sexes pale 




BIRD S EYE VIEW OF ADAMSTOWN 



PART VIII. A TRIP TO BPHRATA AND ADAMSTOWN 



55 



EPHRATA, PA 




EPHRATA SCENERY 




EPHRATA CLOISTER BUILDINGS 



56 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



and emaciated, noiselessly moving 
about (barefooted when the Aveather 
permits) in their strange white capu- 
chin dress of cowl and gown, male 
and female scarcely distinguishable at 
a distance. One sees men and women 
retire at night to their separate houses 
through the narrow hallways to their 
dingy cells with low ceiling, limited 
space, creaking doors with wooden 
hinge and latch, walls covered with 
strange and elegant German script, to 
meditate or sleep on their wooden 
benches and pillows. 



benefit by the bountiful products of 
the hand, head and heart of this 
strange communistic life and activity. 
According to Rupp, "The community 
was a republic, in which all stood 
upon perfect equality and freedom. 
No monastic vows were taken, neither 
had they any written covenants, as is 
common in the Baptist churches. The 
New Testament was their confession 
of faith, their code of laws, and church 
discipline. The property which be- 
longed to the society, by donation, and 
the labor of the single brethren and 




STREET SCENE IN ADAMSTOWN 



One can hear the busy hum of their 
Saturday Sabbath School meetings, 
their midnight services. We see 
American troops coming and taking 
away printed sheets to be fired after 
the British in freedom's cause and 
soon thereafter half a thousand 
wounded soldiers brought here from 
the disastrous battlefield to be ten- 
derly cared for and finally restored to 
health or carried away to their last 
resting places in Mount Zion ceme- 
tery. We see the growing countr3^'s 
leading men making pilgrimages 
hither to show their respects or to 



sisters, was common stock; but none 
was obliged to throw in his own 
property, or to give up any posses- 
sions. The society was supported by 
the income of the farm and grist mill, 
paper mill, oil mill, fulling mill." 

But historic reverie must give way 
to the mute reminders of these scenes. 
We will stroll through the cemetery 
by the roadside and read the inscrip- 
tions of tombstones, examine the 
buildings with their speechless though 
eloquent contents, pay our homage 
to the sacred soil of the hillside 
marked by a stately shaft costing 



PART VIII. A TRIP TO BPHRATA AND ADAMSTOWN 



57 



$5000, erected by the state under the 
auspices of the Ephrata Monument 
Association, bearing these among other 
words: "Sacred to the memory of the 
patriotic soldiers of the American 
Revohition who fought in the battle 
of Brandywine, Sept. 11, A. D., 1777. 
About 500 of the sick and wounded 
were brought to Eph- 
rata for treatment. 
Several hundred died 
who were buried in 
this consecrated 
ground." 

Retracing our steps 
and passing along 
Main street of the 
orderly, thrifty bor- 
ough we notice to our 
left "Ye Village Inn" 
erected 1777, modern- 
ized by paint and 
renovations. To our 
right is the Eagle 
hotel, occupying the 
site of a pre-Revo- 
lutionary hotel at the 
intersection of the 
historic roads between Downingtown 
and Harrisburg and between Reading 
and Lancaster. For a time the place 
was known as Dunkertown on ac- 
count of the Baptist Societ}' and then 
Gross' Corner. 

Continuing our way across tne rail- 
road to the summit at Mountain 



years, we get a "panoramic view of 
unsurpassed beauty to the northwest." 
The tourist will long for an observa- 
tory on the summit of the mountain 
to take in the wide expanse of rural 
scenery to the east, south, west and 
northwest. 

One gets an idea of the growth of 




Spring House, a noted resort for sixty 



BIRDS EYE VIEW AND MAIN STREET, REAMSTOWN 

the place by comparing the present 
populous and substantial borough 
with the condition in 1854 when there 
were only eleven houses from this re- 
sort to the old stone bridge. 

After the proposed trolley line from 
Ephrata to Lebanon by way of Clay 
and SchaefTerstown is built the trolley 
tourist will have a convenient oppor- 




THE OLD HISTORIC MUDDY CREEK CHURCH 



58 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



tunit}^ to study Elizabeth, Clay and 
West Cocalico tevvnships : for the 
present we retrace our way to the 
waiting room in the old stone house 
and resume our trip to Adamstown. 

The line takes to the fields away 
from the old historic highwa^^ along" 
which in days of yore the country's 
leading men travelled to and fro be- 
tween Washington and the East by 
way of Easton, Reading, Lancaster 
and York. We presently pass a 
Reams homestead with the old well 
and neatly built farm house close by 
which across a run rest the remains 
of the Reams ancestors. 

REAMSTOWN 
After a fifteen minute run we reach 
Reamstown, early name Zoar, a his- 
toric spot once the 
metropolis of this 
section of the 
county, the scene 
of many battalion 
drills, abolished 
1846. The place, 
settled by Everhart 
Ream 1723, laid 
out by his son To- 
bias in 1760, was 
important enough 
to have a number 
of hotels prior to 
the Revolution. 
The Union church was erected 1817 
the people previously worshipping at 
Muddy Creek. On the site of the Odd 
Fellows' Hall once stood a hotel, the 
Continental House, used as a i-.ospital 
after the battle of Brandy wine in 1777. 
Of those that died here, most if not 
all lie buried in the cemetery adjoin- 
ing the church edifice. 

Less than two miles away is Denver, 
a clean, enterprising young borough 
owing its birth and growth to the 
Reading and Columbia Railroad. 

About 2 miles northeast we pass the 
historic Muddy Creek church, a union 
church dating back to 1730 about 
which time the first house of wor- 
ship of stone was erected. The third 
and present building was erected in 




1847. The schoolhouse close by is 
but one of the many speechless wit- 
nesses that the early fathers did care 
for school as well as church. The cele- 
brations held each year by the Union 
Sunday School of this organization 
are known and spoken of far and 
wide. 

A short distance beyond the Muddy 
Creek church Schwartzville is passed 
and Adamstown borough on the 
county line soon comes to view where 
our trip will end at the junction with 
the Reading Trolley System affording 
trolley connection with Reading, Al- 
lentown and Easton, Pottstown, Nor- 
ristown and Philadelphia. 

ADAMSTOWN 
Adamstown was laid out in 1761 by 
William Addams, 
a n Englishman 

married to a Ger- 
m a n girl, the 
great-great grand- 
parents o f Hon. 
James Addams 
Beaver, Ex -Gover- 
nor and Judge. 
The place was in- 
corporated in 1850. 
The chief indus- 
tries of the place 
have been hat fac- 
t o r i e s, tanneries 
and distilleries. The place is pleas- 
antly situated along the hillside, the 
schoolhouse crowning the town, from 
which an abundance of pure sand- 
stone water flows. One of the noted 
sons of the place is P. M. Musser, of 
Iowa, who has remebered his pa- 
rental home by. a neat chapel in the 
cemetery overlooking the valley. The 
tourist may well wish for a necroman- 
cer's skill to make pass before himself 
the noted men, who by stage coach 
and other conveyance entered the 
county at this point on their way to 
the nation's capital at Washington. 

But we must leave this charming, 
historic place, old in years but young 
in spirit and enterprise, to return to 
busy Center Square ready for another 
trip. 



p. M. MUSSER MEMORIAL CHAPEL 



59 



PART IX 



A Trip to Manheim and Lititz 




TARTING north from 
Centre Square we turn a 
number of corners until 
we strike Duke street 
along which we travel 
northward. We presently 
cross James street, lead- 
ing to the Franklin and 
Marshall College Buildings on College 
Avenue. A few squares beyond Ave 
reach Ross street and the Lititz pike. 
About two squares to the east of us 
stands, a monument erected in recent 
years, marking the site of the home of 
George Ross, a signer of the Declara-. 
tion of Independence. 

Liberty, the next street we cross, 
marks the city line where we enter 
Manheim township. We now approach 
the bridge across the Cutofif Railroad, 
close by which to our right are the 
Union stockyards. We shall probably 



in crossing over the bridge see heavy 
freight, mail or passenger trains speed 
b)^ without passing through the heart 




GEORGE ROSS MONUMENT 

of the city. The railroad as originally 
laid out ran outside the city. Some 
"bitterly opposed the construction of 




UNION STOCK YARDS 



60 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



the railroad throug-h the city. The 
masses however demanded it and had 
their way." The agitation began in 
183 1 to procure the alterations of the 
route of the railroad "so that the same 
may pass through the city." The 
building of the road was completed in 
1834 at a total outlay of about $60,- 
000, the estimated cost. According to 
Hensel. "The entire cost of the rail- 
way through Lancaster city was not 
as great as a single bridge on the new 
low-grade road across the Pequea ; 
and all the land damages paid i)etween 



on the original historic road passing 
through Landis Valley, Oregon, Eph- 
rata and Adamstown to Reading, Eas- 
ton and beyond. 

Oregon, about six miles from Lan- 
caster on this road was settled in 17 17 
by Jacob Baer who built the first mill 
and whose son started the first tavern 
in the neighborhood. The place was 
formerly known as Catfish on account 
of the good fishing. The place was 
named Oregon at the time the Oregon 
question was before Congress. The 
graveyard adjoining the Union church 







CEMETERY AT OREGON 



Big and Conestoga bridge and Diller- 
ville on a line crossing a dozen 
strets was scarcely a tenth the amount 
assessed for cutting a single farm be- 
tween Christiana and Ouarryville a 
few years ago." 

After passing the stockyards we no- 
tice to our left half a dozen squares or 
so, the largest linoleum plant in the 
United States and beyond the Frank- 
lin and Marshall College buildings 
piercing the skyline. 

A scant half mile beyond the stock 
yards we notice a road branching ofif 
to the right. This is the Oregon pike 



is one of the oldest in the county out- 
side of Lancaster. 

Our route lies along the Lancaster 
and Lititz pike past lovely homes in a 
rich farming section to the rotary 
station where we turn to the west on 
the Manheim branch to resume the 
trip to Lititz at this point later. 

We now make our way, partly 
through fields, partly along highways 
through a rich, undulating farming 
section of East Hempfield to East 
Petersburg, on the Manheim turnpike 
about 4* miles from Lancaster. This 
homelike place has passed the century 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHELM AND LITITZ 



61 




-._iS».._>^*",-S»-»iSi: 



i 



ROTARY STATION NEAR NEffSVlLLE 



mark in age, a store and hotel having 
been erected here prior to the year 
1800. We zigzag through the clean 
and charming place, fearful at times 
that the tracks might lead us over 
somebody's front yard or back porch 
so closely do we skirt the sidewalks 
at places. 



Beyond East Petersburg, we pass 
through an ideal farming section, for 
a time parallelling the Reading and 
Columbia Railroad. We speed along 
the turnpike over rising ground to the 
crest where we pass the Kaufifman 
Mennonite meeting house to soon 
find a characteristic Lancaster land- 






!teii)i^iiCiyjd'>ii^*zti,&a^-Sim'i»^^ 



^>c^s!<fiii'mim^;^':mi^EiSii;^!^mm 



62 



SEEING' LANCASTER COUNTY FRCM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



scape spread before us to the north, 
Manheim forming the center and fore- 
ground, the South Mountain the back- 
ground to the picture. Descending 
the gentle northern slope we soon pass 
through Manheim's pleasure resort, 
Kauffman Park, of ten acres presented 
to the town in 1876 by Abraham 
Kauffman. A few minutes more 
bring us to the trolley terminus at the 
southern end of Alanheim close by the 
railroad. 

Manheim is a mile long, more than 
half as wide with characteristic eigh- 
teenth century narrow streets and a 
pubic square, far famed for its early 
Stiegel history, recalled of late years 
by the red rose presentation ceremony 
at one of the churches. It was carved 




THE STIEGEL MANSION 

out of Rapho township, itself cut out 
of the historic Donegal in 1741. The 
place was laid out in 1762 by Henry 
William Stiegel, a native of Manheim, 
Germany, hence the name of the place. 
To the two houses then standing 
others were soon added, including 
Longenecker's flouring mill and 
Stiegel's large glass factory upon the 
corner of South Charlotte and Stiegel 
streets. The place was sold by the 
sheriff in 1775, the glass factory in 
1779 and its founder died a poor and 
disheartened man in 1783. In 1809 
the factory was torn down and the 
brick used to build a hotel at Nefifs- 
ville. Manheim was the birthplace' of 
John Seybert (1791-1860) first bishop 
and home missionary of the Evangeli- 
cal church. His father (1761-1806) 



was brought to this country at the age 
of fifteen among German mercenaries. 
His mother left home and her two 
children aged 15 and 8 years respec- 
tively to join the Rappites at Har- 
mony, Pa., where she died at an ad- 
vanced age. Seybert in his life ex- 
emplified the saying familiar in Ger- 
man communities, where he took off 
his hat he was at home. He died in 
Ohio. 

Another of Manheim's sons who 
made his home elsewhere was Gen- 
eral- S. P. Heintzelman, the hero of 
Manassas, Fair Oaks, Richmond and 
Malvern Hill. Pie was born in 1805, 
graduated from West Point 1826 and 
then served in the regular army, mak- 
ing- his home in \/Vashineton. D. C. 




THE STIEGEL OFEICE 



Avhere he died in 1880. He was direct 
descendant of Conrad Weiser and 
Rev. Tobias Wagner. 

We may quote in this connection the 
words of a writer in The Pennsylvania- 
German of April 1900. 

"To visit the Manheim of 1900 is to 
find a thriving and prosperous inland 
town of between two and three thous- 
and happy and intelligent citizens, 
whose own thrift and industry keeps 
them in comfort and peace. The 
homes that line its streets bespeak 
varied degrees of taste, happiness and 
wealth, while such industries as sever- 
al cigar manufactories, its hosiery, 
shirt and pantaloon factories, its large 
flouring mills (capacity 250 bbl. daily), 
its novelt}^ works and tobacco-packing 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHEIM AND LITITZ 



63 



houses, its stores, shops, banks and 
publishing house, with its weekly 
paper — "The Sentinel" — keep its 
people employed. It has live hostel- 
ries for the accommodation of the 
traveling public and the bibulous, and 
eight churches — some strong and 
flourishing, others very weak — for the 
religious, which embraces well-nigh 
every one. The town's streets are 
well-paved and kept, crossing each 
other at right angles and running 
towards the chief points of the com- 
pass, named with a German flavor about 
them, as Prussian, Ferdinand, Stiegel, 
Charlotte, Market, etc. The center 
about a wide and oblong square, at the 
opposite ends of which Baron Stiegel, 
the founder, in 1761-4, built his cele- 
brated "mansion" and business-office 
with brick imported from England and 
brought from Philadelphia in teams. 
Same are still standing, though former 
is remodeled and converted into a 
store building, while the latter is oc- 
cupied as a residence. The same ma- 
terial and history characterized 
Stiegel's glass-factory — erected about 
same time, first in United States, and 
whose superior products have not 
been matched nor excelled to this day. 
The few rare specimens, now kept in 
collectors' hands, prove this by a test 
of their peculiar bell-like ring, fineness 
of quality and richness of color. A 
quantity of the same may be found in 
Mr. George H. Banner's collection of 
curios, described below. Skilled work- 
men from Europe were employed in 
this glass-factory of Baron Stiegel's, 
which was an immense structure with 
a tower 90 feet high but which was 
not found a profitable investment, was 
sold by the sheriff and the building 
razed about a century ago, the im- 
ported brick going into the construc- 
tion of the public house at Neffsville. 
Surely if the sands from neighboring 
hills gave glassware such a rich ring 
and quality, it is a wonder some 
modern manufacturer has not been 
lured into a second attempt of the 
same enterprise ! 




i^rr^.' 



'¥■-: - 



I..CI.. lan t full, I 
■\ ).iiieini r .■ I'V 



■/..- /-V^^M .... //- -rVc ///'- 



The Danner Museum of curios and 
antiques is perhaps the greatest 
wonder of Manheim'. That one man 
could carry on a busy mercantile busi- 
ness all this time and yet succeed as a 
mere recreation in personally gather- 
ing and arranging during twenty-two 
years a museium of relics, that in 
quantity, rarity, variety and curiosity 
outrivals many of the most noted city 
museums is certainly a mark of mar- 
velous industry and ingenuity. Yet 
this is the achievement of Mr. George 
H. Danner, of Manheim. The third 
floor of his immense store rooms, with 
a depth of over 100 feet, holds this in- 
teresting collection. Thursday of each 
week is visitor's day and thousands 
upon thousands of spectators have, 
without fee or favor, enjoyed the rare 
treat of strolling through the place and 
express their wonder and store their 
minds with knowledge. For here are 
found not only many rich and quaint 
articles of furniture in iron, brass, tin, 
wood, steel, silver, pewter, gold, earth. 



64 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



and china ; or textiles of cotton, wool, 
hemp and silk, or monies of all nation- 
alities and in all the forms of paper 
notes and metal coin, but rarest relics 
from the tombs of Egypt, the ruins of 
Pompeii, the battlefields of the conti- 
nents and islands of the globe, the 
deepest caverns and highest moun- 
tains. All help to show modes of do- 
mestic life, onward progress of civili- 
zation, and the steps in the march of 
History. We took deepest interest in 
the cabinents of local collections, of 
which there is ample to perpetuate the 
fame of Manheim's founder and the 
skill and genius of its earlier German 
artisan inhabitants. Among these are 
the stoves and clocks and curious 
desks and globes and crockery." 

Retracing our way to the rotary 
station we start for historic Lititz and 
soon reach Neffsville a thriving well- 
located village kiid out about a cen- 
tury ago by John Nefif. It was known 
in its early days as Fiddler's Green on 
account of the green trees on the hotel 
sign of the original tavern erected by 
Leonard Fiddler. 

TO LITITZ 

About three miles to the right of 
Neffsville there still stands the 
"cradle" or first place of worship of 
the United Brethren church, the his- 
toric Isaac Long barn, recently the 
Jacob Landis property. It was here 
that a minister of the Reformed 
Church, Philip William Otterbein, 
well instructed in Latin, Greek, He- 
brew, philosophy and divinity, tall, of 
stature and dressed in regulation cleri- 
cal style, for the first time met the 
Mennonite minister, Martin Boehm, a 
farmer, short of stature and dressed in 
plain style of the people of his faith. 
The occasion was a meeting (called a 
'grosse versammlung'), assembled for 
religious services, attended by a large 
promiscuous crowd, full of curiosity. 
Martin Boehm preached the opening 
sermon with such force that at the 
close, before he had time to resume 
his seat, Otterbein arose and foldinsf 



Boehm in his arms, exclaimed with a 
loud voice, "We are brethren". Thus 
a fast friendship was formed between 
the two which death alone severed 
and the United Brethren Church 
sprang into existence. 

About a mile beyond Nefifsville we 
notice on the right hand side, build- 
ing operations going on, the erection 
of a home for old people by the Breth- 
ren Church to take the place of the 
"home" at Manheim. The site is in 
many respects an ideal one. Near the 
next village. Kissel Hill, we lea\'e the 




A TEN PLATE STOVE 

highway to cut a figure S across the 
hill, avoiding the steep grades, pass- 
ing across* the turnpike at righl" angles 
near the middle of the place and re- 
turning to the turn]:)ike north of the 
village. 

At this point we get a good view of 
Elizabeth township lying to the north, 
Brickerville, on the ridge with its 
miique. historic Reformed and Luth- 
eran church buildings and beyond 
these Cannon Hill. The story goes 
that the latter point was so named 
because from its top it was cus- 
tomary to fire signal guns giving no- 
tice that Baron Stiegel Avhose massion 
and business were located at the foot 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHEIM AND LITITZ 



65 



of the hill was expecting to visit Man- 
heim or Womelsdorf as the case 
might be. At the foot of the hill are 
the ruins, and reminders, the stately 
mansion of the Elizabeth Furnace 
made famous by Huber and his son- 
in-law Stiegel, In the terraced grounds 
surrounding the house, stately forest 
trees have taken possession of the 
flower beds of yore. The place with a 
number of additional farms in the vic- 
inity belong to the Colemans and is 
being kept in good repair. The house 
has its AVashington room where the 
Father of our Country is said to have 
slept one night. The historic spot 
merits and will lichly repay a visit. 

The Lutheran and Reformed 
churches at Brickerville are both old 
congregations, the former dating from 
1730, the latter, from 1740. The 
Lutheran church building has a gallery 
on three sides and a candle-stick pul- 
pit Avith sounding board. In the ceme- 
tery adjoining sleep many of the fath- 
ers and mothers of the community. 
The following tombstone inscription 
may interest our readers, marking the 
resting place of the first wife of Henry 
William Stiegel. 



HIER X RUHT 

ELISABETH 

(A ) X DEN 

WURMEN X tJBERG 

EBEN X SO X LANG x BIS 

lEHOVA X SIE X RUFET 

ZU X EINEM X ANDERN 

LEBEN X GOTT 
1ST X DI E X SEEL x IN 
lESU X GLUTH X UN 
D X WUNDEN X BER 
EITS X X DUCH X KLUHT 
T X hOHL X DER X StJ 
NDEN X WERCK x EN 
TBUNDEN X UND 
DIESES X 1ST X DER x R 
UHM X X (B) X DIE 
NACHWELT x GIBT 
DEFUNCTA x A X PATRE x EL 
ISAB X lAC X RUBERS x F 
ILIA X NATA x 1734 X D X 27 
MARTZ X NUPTA x H 
ENRI X GUILHELM • 
O X STIEGEL X 1757 X D 
7 X NOV X DEN ATA x A 
1757 X D X 13 X FEBR 

Note (A) is probably Stiegel. (B) is either 
IR or IHR. 






THE HISTORIC STIEGEL HOMESTEAD (nOW COLEMAN) 



66 



SEEIXG LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 




TOMBSTONE OF FIRST WIFE OF BARON STIEGEE 

While we are studying the distant 
view the car tai<:es us along to Lititz 
but a mile from Kissel Hill and 
brings us to the end of our journey 
close by the P. and R. depot and at 
the entrance to the Lititz Springs 
Grounds. 



bership, Moravian congregations were 
divided into "Choirs," or classes ac- 
cording to age, sex and station, as 
early as 1727, each "Choir" l^eing un- 
der its own special Director, and hav- 
ing each year a season of covenanting 
and prayer. In addition to this, 
marked emphasis was laid upon a 
deeply-solemn observance of the festi- 
vals of the Church Year, of the Pas- 
sion Week and of the important 
events in the history of the Brethren's 
Church, called "Memorial" or "Cove- 
nant Days." All these and other 
time-honored customs and services, 
sometimes called "Moravian Peculiari- 
ties," having i n view the spiritual 
profit of the meml)ership, have been 




J' y^. 



-, S 



FIRST HOUSE IN LITITZ. BUILT 1754 



The history of Lititz — religious, 
educational, musical, social and indus- 
trial, is inseparable from the history 
of the Moravian Church in I^ititz. 
June 12, 1756, the settlement of Mora- 
vian Brethren here received the name 
of Lititz from Count Zinzendorf in 
memory of the town in Bohemia, 
where the newly-organized church of 
the Ancient Brethren's Unity found 
its first refuge in 1456, and henceforth 
the name of the Moravian congrega- 
tion became the name of the town. 

For the purpose of fostering and su- 
pervising th^ spiritual life of the mem- 



observed by the Moravian Church at 
Lititz ever since its organization with 
such modifications or accomodations 
as the changng conditions made nec- 
essary. Even the "Lease System", or 
the arrangement according to which 
it was impossible for any but Mora- 
vians to own land in Lititz, narrow 
and exclusive as it may appear to 
many today, was not without its pecu- 
liar advantages in the way of spiritual 
culture and oversight. This system 
being found to be impracticable any 
longer, was abolished in 1856. 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHEIM AND LITITZ 



67 




A LANDMARK — FORMERLY THH BRETHREN S' GRANARY 



Among the salient dates in the early 
history o f Lititz may be mentioned 
the following-. In 1742 Zinzendorf 
held religious services in W'arwick at 
the house of Jacob Huber. Two years 
later a log church w^as built on George 
Klein's land. In 1747 the corner stone 
of the Gemeinhaus was laid. In I757 
the town was surveyed and laid out in 
lots. In 1758 cornerstone of Sisters' 



House laid. In 1759 the cornerstone 
of the Single. Brethren's House was 
laid. In 1762 cornerstone of new Ge- 
meinhaus, the present parsonage laid. 
1778 about 200 sick and wounded 
soldiers with officers and doctors Avere 
quartered in the village. 1787 the 
present church was consecrated. The 
Moravian Sunday School was organ- 
ized in 1846. The following year the 




FIRST GEMEINHAUS IN LITITZ 



68 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



turnpike to Lancaster was completed. 
Linden Hall Seminary was incorpor- 
ated in 1863. 

From the very earliest times Lititz 
has been noted as a center of indus- 
try as well as of frugality and piety. 

Excepting- the industries connected 
with the Moravian Congregation, 
Lititz first became important (indus- 
trially speaking), in 1765 when David 
Tannenberg began the manufacture of 
organs and pianos, the organs particu- 
larly, being noted for their sweetness 
of tone and excellent workmanship, 
specimer.s of which may yet be found 
in Philadelph'a, Baltimore. Lauafter. 



tire country with them, some going as 
far south as New Orleans, a distance 
in those days that was a much greater 
obstacle to successful trade than in the 
present age of steam and electricity. 

A noted inventor of those days was 
Godfrey Albright who made the first 
plan of a ten-plate stove. Mr. Al- 
bright gave his pattern to Robert 
Coleman who introduced the stoves. 

Of all industries that have made 
the name of Lititz familiar in almost 
all corners of the earth, -the manufac- 
ture of bretzels was (and is) the most 
important. A\'ill'am Ranch began the 
manufacture of these toothsome 




:^'* %U ^=^£1^ li^'M^^^^ 





LINDEN HALL SEMINARY IN l8~0 



Bethlehem, Madison, Va.. and Salem, 
N. C. One of his pianos (according 
to an old record) was sold for £22, 

lOS. 

Another important industry that 
did much to make the town famous 
was the manufacture of chip hats and 
bonnets. This business was con- 
ducted by Matthias Tshudy early in 
the nineteenth century, and flourished 
until the palm leaf and straw hats be- 
came famous favorites. Mr. Tshudy 
was the only person in the country 
who understood the art of manufac- 
turing such hats, and supplied the en- 



dainties about 1810, was succeeded by 
his son who continued their manufac- 
ture until 1865, when Julius Sturgis 
began the manufacure of his famous 
"Only Genuine Lititz Bretzels," 
greatly improving the bretzel as well 
as the method of making them. 

The malting of grain became a lead- 
ing industry about 1824 when a malt 
house was built on the present site 
of Dr. P. J. Roebuck's residence, by 
Michael Greider. This building hav- 
ing been destroyed by fire in 1856 a 
brick building was erected on West 
Main street for malting purposes and 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHEIM AND LITITZ 



69 




I,1NDEN HALL SEMINARY TODAY 



continued to be used as such until 
1878. John Kreiter also carried on 
this business starting about 1833. 
when permission was granted him by 
the church authorities to build a 
brewery and malt house, in the hope 



that the use of malt liquors would 
replace spirituous liquors which were 
then the chief beverage. He erected a 
brewery at what was then the foot of 
East Alain street which was conducted 
b y Francis Ranch and Richard 




THE POOL, LITITZ SPRINGS 



70 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



Tshudy at the time it wag destroyed 
by fire in 1865. They immediately re- 
built south of the Spring grounds 
their building being known even tc^^ay 
as the "old brewery''. Among the viif- 
ferent people engaged in this business 
besides those men mentioned were 
Jacob Tshudy, R. R. Tshudy, Chris- 
tian Kreiter, T. M. Rauch, John 
Hamm and Alichael ]\fuecke. 



The church conducted the only other 
store until 1843, when it was sold to 
Nathaniel S. Wolle. 

In recent years the following indus- 
tries have l)een begun, most of which 
are in successful operation today: 
Keystone Underwear Mills, Cream- 
ery, Ideal Cocoa and Chocolate Co., 
Electric Light, Heat and Power Co., 
two National Banks, Eby Shoe Co., 




GENERAL JOHN A. SUTTHR 



A tannery was conducted by Jacob 
Geitner for many years in the build- 
ing in which Mr. Milton Bender now 
conducts a butcher shop. Bark be- 
coming very scarce in this neighbor- 
hood Clement Geitner, his son and 
successor, in November 1882 moved 
to Hickory, N. C. 

Jacob Tshudy was the pioneer 
store-keeper who started in lousiness 
with his own stock of C'oods in 1828. 



Lititz Planing Mill, Lititz Steam 
Laundrv, Lititz Lithographing Co., 
Lititz Dairy Co., Consumers Box 
Board and Paper Co., Animal Trap 
Co., Thomas Wagon Co., Lititz Hos- 
iery Co. 

Among the noteworthy characteris- 
tics of Lititz past and present may be 
mentioned the following: its spring of 
purest water of sufficient volume to 
furnish power for seven mills in the 



PART IX. A TRIP TO MANHEIM AND LITITZ 



71 



course of five miles, its being one of 
the distinctive American Moravian 
communities : its strong missionary 
spirit that has led many of its sons 
and daughters as messengers to the 
neglected spots of heathen countries ; 
Linden Hall, founded 1794 a school 
for young ladies that has had over 
4000 stt\dents in its care and has a 
national reputation ; Beck's Boys' Se- 
lect School, also of national reputa- 
tion ; the building of church organs 
early in the i8th century; musical 
culture; as a place of publication of 
the first Pharmacopeia in America 



(the work of Dr. Willian Brown), its 
chip hat and bonnet factory carried on 
by Mr. Tshudy, the only person in the 
United States that understood the art 
of manufacturing them ; its bretzels, 
the manufacture of which dates back 
to the year 1810, the manufacture of 
augers with screw point by John H. 
Ranch ; as the birthplace of Edward 
li. Ranch, known as "Pete Schwefifl- 
iDrenner," as the final resting place of 
General John A. Sutter, famous in con- 
nection with the discovery of gold in 
California. 




72 



PART X 



Lancaster in the Days of Yore 




AVING taken our trips 
over the county, we may 
profitably dwell for a 
few moments o n the 
"Lancaster in the Days of 
Yore". For most of what 
follows we are indebted 
to the Lancaster County 
Historical Society and "John of Lan- 
caster. 

About the year 1800 a picture of 
Lancaster was made in India ink by 
an unknown artist which has at var- 
ious times been reproduced. We give 
herewith a cut of said picture on 
which certain buildings are identi- 
fied. Respecting the picture and these 
buildings, Mr. Diffenderfifer has writ- 
ten so entertainingly that we can not 
do better than quote or condense his 
language. 

No. I. The Old Store House 

The first one of the ten is the build- 
ing on the extreme left, standing out 
boldly. It is what was known then 
and in later times as the old "Store 
House". It .was built by the State of 
Pennsylvania at an early period of the 
Revolutionary War for the housing of 
military supplies, and from whence 
they were distributed as needed at 
other points. The building stood on the 
west side of North Queen street, be- 
tween Lemon and James streets. The 
original building was of brick, and was 
one hundred and thirty-five f^eet wide, 
and two stories high. By an act of 
the Legislature, passed February 27, 
1788, the Store House and the ground 
on which it stood was donated by the 
State to Franklin College, which had 
been chartered the previous year. The 
building was thoroughly repaired and 
the lately chartered Franklin College 
established therein. The exact year 
when this occurred seems to be un- 
known. At all events, the buildings 
and ground, rather more than an acre 



in extent, which included two addi- 
tional lots donated by the Hamilton 
heirs, were sold about 1838 for $2,000. 
The college was then removed to the 
Franklin Academy building, which 
had been purchased, near the north- 
east corner of Orange and Lime 
streets. The property fell into the 
hands of the late John S. Gable who 
built a row of six houses on the old 
Store House site, the same ones to be 
seen there now. 

No. 2. The Barracks 

The second picture is the Barracks, 
which stood on the corner of Walnut 
and North Duke streets where the M. 
E. church now stands. Directly oppo- 
site was the row of buildings known 
as the Government Stalls. The Bar- 
racks was built as a place of safety 
for the frontier people, to house the 
military forces that should pass 
through Lancaster and to keep the 
prisoners captured from the enemy. 
The first prisoners to be sent to the 
Barracks arrived in the fall of 1775. 
Many others were sent here later, both 
English and German, as many as 2000 
being held occasionally at one time. 
The Hessians had an excellent band 
which was hired by the citizens of 
Lancaster to play at balls and enter- 
tainments. They were also employed 
as shoemakers, and helpers on the 
farms or in the iron works to make 
cannon and balls. By 1784 the build- 
ing was in a dilapidated condition. 
How and when the state disposed of 
this property we can not say. In this 
connection it may also be noted that 
there were barracks on what was for- 
merly Middle street, now Howard ave- 
nue, near East King, large etiough to 
accomodate 500 men, erected 1759 and 
demolished 1886 on account of the 
opening of Shippen street. The old 
Powder House erected 1777 stood on 




73 



Xorth Duke street on the west side, 
near the corner of James street. 

No. 3. The Old Jail 

The third building indicated in the 
picture is the old jail. This, however, 
was not the first one built for the 
county's needs. An earlier one was 
ordered to be built at John Postle- 
thwait's Tavern, seven miles southwest 
of Lancaster, and £600 were voted 
for it and a Court House, but for some 
reason the plans were changed and 
the}^ were never erected. Robert 
Barker who was the first elected 
Sheriff of the county, erected one of 
logs at his own expense, on his own 
property at Columbia, hoping to get 
the county seat located ther, but he, 
too, was disappointed. The first one 
built in Lancaster town was erected 
in 1739. It also was of logs, and had 
to be enlarged several times. The 
second one, of brick, was built in 
1745-6 and the third, or stone one of 
the picture in 1775. It was here that 
the murder of the fourteen Conestoga 
Indians occurred on December 27, 
1763, by the "Paxtang Boys". It was 
not until 1774 that the building of the 
stone structure, which was familiarly 
known as "the Old Jail" was begun. 
It was completed in 1775 at a cost of 
$4,675, and stood on the ground now 
occupied by the Fulton Opera House. 
The old jail stood until 185 1 when the 
new jail in the eastern part of the city 
was completed. 

No. 4. The Dutch Presbyterian 

Church 
The "High Dutch" or "Calvinistic" 
Church was the name by which the 
Reformed Church was first known in 
State Documents. In the account of 
its organization in 1736, the year in 
which the first church was built, we 
"find the following: "Church Protocol 
of the newly built Reformed Church, 
here in the Island of Pennsylvania, in 
Cannastoken in the new town named 
Lancaster." The church itself was 
the first church of any kind built in 



74 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



Lancaster. It was constructed of logs 
and stood on the southern side of the 
present church lot. This old log 
church was torn down in 1753 and a 
new one begun in the same year and 
completed in 1757. The material of 
the old one was converted into a 
dwelling erected on the northwest 
corner of Christian and Orange 
streets, where it stood until 1836, when 
it was burned down. The second 
church building stood until 1850, when 
the present structure was built. 

No. 5. The Courthouse 

• Lancaster county was organized in 
1729 at John Postlethwaite's Tavern, 
seven miles southwest of Lancaster. 
Court was held on June 9, 1729. The 
Courts continued to be held there un- 
til November 1730, when they were 
held in Lancaster, but in various 
taverns, there being no regular court- 
house. The erection of one on the 
square was commenced in 1737 and 
completed about May, 1739. It was 
an unpretentious brick structure, two 
stories high, paved Avith brick and had 
a steeple. It was destroyed by fire on 
June 9, 1784. A more imposing struct- 
ure was begun on the old site in 1784 
and completed in 1787 at a cost of 
$15,758. It was also known as the 
State House, because the State Legis- 
lature met in it doAvn to 1812, when 
the Capital Avas removed to Harris- 
burg. 

No. 6. St. James' Church 

The records of St. James parish go 
back no farther than 1744, the year the 
great treaty with the Six Nations was 
held here. In the following year, 1745, 
subscriptions were made towards a 
stone building. The work proceeded 
slowly. It was not until 1755 that 
every part of the work inside was 
completed. It was built of blue lime- 
stone and extended forty-four on 
Orange street and thirty-four on Duke 
street. The spire galleries and other 
improvements were subsequently 
added. The funds to build a church- 



yard wall were raised by a lottery in 
1764. The funds for the steeple had 
been supplied in the same manner in 
1761. No picture of this early stone 
church has been preserved. It was 
torn down in 1818 and in 1820 a new 
brick church stood in its place. Ad- 
ditions and other improvements were 
made to that building in 1844, 1878 
and 1880. 

No. 7. Presbyterian Church 
While there was a Presbyterian con- 
gregation here as early as 1763, the 
first church was not built until 1769. 
Perhaps not to seem odd, or above 
their neighbors, the Reformed, Luth- 
erans and Episcopalians, the Presby- 
terians also held a lottery to pay for 
the little log church built on the same 
lot where the present stately church 
stands. The church was remodeled 
in 1877 and later the fine chapel ad- 
joining was built. 

No. 8. The Trinity Lutheran Church 

The Lutheran church was organized 
in 1733, there was no church until 
1738. The first church had a steeple, 
bells, and an organ, which at the time 
Avas said to be the largest organ in 
America and had been made by David 
Tannenberg of Lititz. By 1761 the 
congregation had grown so large that 
more ample accomodations were re- 
quired, and in the same year the lot on 
Avhich the present church stands was 
purchased and on May 18, 1861, the 
cornerstone Avas laid Avith imposing 
ceremonies. The ncAv structure was 
eighty feet long and sixty feet wide. 
The erection of the present tower and 
steeple Avas begun in 1785 but Avas not 
completed until 1794. In 1853-54 the 
church Avas again remodeled and ex- 
tended. The chimes of bells now in 
the belfrA^ Avas put there in 1854. The 
commodious chapel to the south of the 
church building Avas dedicated in 1877. 

No. 9. St. Mary's Catholic Church 

A Catholic mission Avas established 
in the city as early as 1741. A log 



PART X. LANCASTER IN THE DAYS OF YORE 



75 



church was bviilt on ground donated 
by Hamilton at the corner of Prince 
and Vine streets which was destroyed 
by fire in 1760. Two years later a 
stone edifice arose above the ashes of 
the primitive early building. In 1854 
the stately church which stands on 
the same corner was dedicated. A fire 
in 1867 caused so much damage to the 
building that a remodeling of the 
church became necessary and this was 
done in 1868. The building in the pic- 
ture of course represents the small 
stone church erected in 1762. 



The Moravian Church 

Although the Moravian church 
building was one of the seven church 
edifices in Lancaster at the time this 
picture was made, it does not appear 
in the drawing, owing to the fact that 
it was a low structure and not visible 
to the artist from his view point. The 
Moravian congregation and church in 
this city owe their existence to the 
efiforts of Count Zinzendorf, who came 
here and preached- in the first Court 
House in 1742. In 1746 the modest 



Lancaster, Pa., St. Marys 
Catholic Church. I 76 J 




No. 10. The Friends' Meeting House 

No picture of the Friends' Meeting 
House seems to be accessible. The 
Quakers were numerous in the count}^ 
at the formation of the county in 1729. 
Their meeting house was completed 
about 1739 at a cost of £551-6-3. 
Forty years later the attendance ac- 
cording to Marshall's diary was not 
very good. About 1810 the house was 
used for a time for school purposes. 
In 1845 the building and grounds were 
sold to Judge Lewis for $1250, the 
burying ground in the rear of the 
building being reserved. The follow- 
ing year the property was sold to the 
Odd Fellows who built a hall upon it. 



stone church, represented in the ac- 
companying cut was erected. The old 
stone church was used as a place of 
worship until 1820, when it was taken 
down and the present one erected in 
its stead. The stone parsonage was 
left standing, but in 1868-69 the church 
was remodeled and enlarged, so as to 
join the former which is still standing. 



NOTE.— The following lines were written by 
"John of Lancaster". 

In 1809 Old Lancaster, just half its 
present age, was the largest, as well as 
oldest, inland town in the United 
States. It had about 5000 inhabitants, 
and was somewhat larger than present 



76 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



Ephrata, Lititz or Marietta. The town 
was divided into an East and West 
ward by Queen street, and extended 
about four squares in each direction. 
The suburbs of that day, Adamstown, 
Kunleysville, Hinnerand Vorder-Cet- 
telsstadt, are now embraced by this 
city of 50,000. A two-story Court 
House stood in Penn Square where 
the State Legislature met until 1812, 
when Harrisburg- became the Capital. 
It cost $15,000, less than one-tenth of 
the present Court House. The same 
is true of the old jail, which cost 
$5,000, and whose stone walls may still 
be seen in the rear of the Fulton Opera 
House. 

The finest thing- about Old Lancaster 
was the Philadelphia Pike, running- 
through it to Pittsburg. It was fin- 
ished in 1792 at a cost of $500,000. 
Dotted with canvass-covered Cone- 
stoga wagons it must have resembled 
a river. The hardest grade across the 
State was from the Lancaster Court 
House, through the hollow of Roaring 
Brook and up to the Plow Tavern, 
still standing opposite Christ Luth- 
eran Church. Over this road many 
necessities and luxuries were carried. 
There were few things manufactured 
in Lancaster then except saddles, pig- 
iron, rifles, axes and the like. 

There were no trolleys, no horse- 
cars, indeed the means of transporta- 
tion were limited to the pike. The 
bridge at Columbia had not yet been 
built, nor the old canal from Safe 
Harbor to Lancaster, and it was not 
until 1833 that the first railroad, now 
the "Pennsylvania", was operated by 
horses. The first engine used on it was 
a failure, and even the "Old Lancas- 
ter" drew so small a train that horses 
continued to be used until, 1851. 

No telephones hung conveniently at 
hand, and even the telegraph was half 
a century away. Ninety years ago a 
Committee was authorized to choose 
a site for a water-wheel to pump a 
supply into the town, and it took them 
25 years to get it started. There were 
no public schools, but parochial ones, 



supported by Lutherans, Reformed, 
Moravians and Catholics, and rented 
later to the city until it could build 
some one-story school houses, and the 
historic two-story one, associated with 
the memories of Lafayette's last visit, 
at a cost of $5,500. There was Frank- 
lin College here, however, opened with 
State aid in 1787, and languishing until 
182 1. The Lutheran share in it was 
sold out later, and transferred to Get- 
tysburg College. ] 

There was not one daily paper, and 
only a few sheets issued at intervals. 
Lancaster was not even incorporated 
as a city until 1818. The old borough 
charter lapsed, with its strange pro- 
vision that a man elected 'to office 
should be fined, if he would not serve ! 
It called also for Fairs in June and 
October, lasting two days. Then the 
streets could hardly be seen for the 
tables and booths, covered with silks, 
laces, cheap jewelry, calicoes, ginger- 
bread cakes and sweet-meats. The 
young men hoarded up their money to 
treat their best girls to a "fairing", 
which took the place of our modern 
engagement announcement. The cor- 
ners of the streets were taken up by 
mountebanks, rope-dancers, and all the 
"latest" amusements. The crowning 
pleasure was the dances held in every 
town. How little recreation they had, 
and how dangerous some of their 
pleasures were, bringing shame to the 
daughters, and carrying many promis- 
ing sons to an early grave in that Lan- 
caster of a hundred years ago. 

The average town, a century ago, 
looked very old-fashioned and primi- 
tive. The streets were often muddy, 
and riders on horseback had to be fined 
to keep them off the pavements. The 
houses away from the center of the 
town were low, small and scattered. 
They were surrounded by gardens of 
vegetables, rather than of flowers ; and 
the fences had to be kept up to keep 
out live-stock. Geese were yoked to- 
gether in pairs to prevent their depre- 
dations. One High Constable and 
several others took the place of the 



PART X. LANCASTER IN THE DAYS OF YORE 



77 



/79 a. 




present "Blue-coats". Their chief 
duty was to supply the street lamps 
with fat-oil, and keep them burning, 
when there was no moon. There were 
no electric lights, turning night into 
day, no paved streets, no sewers to 
carry off surface water and refuse, but 
there was plenty of typhoid and other 
diseases. The watchmen cried the 
hours from ten to four, when they an- 
nounced to would-be early risers, 
whether it was "starlight", or "cloudy". 
Many of the houses were of logs, or 
of frame-work filled in with stone. 
The roofs were shingled, leaky in wet 
weather and dangerous in case of a 
fire. Some may have had windows of 
oiled paper, as glass was still expens- 
ive. Coal was not in use at all, and 
even stoves were not plentiful. jNIuch 
of the cooking was done in brick 
ovens, or by the open hearth, where 
great logs were piled on ponderous 
andirons. The furniture was heavy, 
massive tables, high-backed chairs, a 
conner-closet with rows of pewter 
plates, for glass and china were rare. 
Large chests held the family's scanty 
clothes .and many of these were home- 
spun. Sand, brushed in fancy patterns 



often took the place of carpet. Spin- 
ning wheels were not ornaments, tied 
with ribbon, but stood ready for hard 
work. Beds were immense affairs, 
often with posts and canopies, for the_ 
temperature of the bedroom was gen- 
erally that of a woodshed, and feather 
beds and quilts were in demand. 

Each bucket of water had to be 
pumped out of the well and carried in. 
The farmer still used the wooden plow, 
sowed his grain broadcast, cut it with 
a scythe and threshed it with a flail. 
Many of our favorite vegetables were 
unknown, such as the tomato, egg- 
plant, cauliflower, rhubarb, sweet corn, 
head-lettuce and cantaloupes. Our 
favorite geraniums and verbenas were 
not yet cultivated. The meals were 
simple, bean porridge, hasty pudding 
and ryebread being standbys. The 
average table then did not look any- 
thing like ours at Thanksgiving and 
Christmas. 



In 1744, Witham Marshe, the secre- 
tary of the Maryland Commissioners 
gave the following description of the 
place : 



78 



SEEING LANCASTER COUNTY FROM A TROLLEY WINDOW 



'"This town has not been begun to be 
built above sixteen years. it is con- 
veniently laid out into sundry streets 
and one main street, in the midst of 
which stands the courthouse and 
market. Through this runs the road 
to the back country on the Susque- 
hanna. There are several cross streets 
on each side of the main street, which 
are indifferetnly well built, as to 
quantity of houses. 

The inhabitants are chiefly High- 
Dutch, Scotch-Irish, some few English 
families, and unbelieving Israelites, 
who deal very -considerably in this 
place. 

The spirit of cleanliness has not as 
yet troubled the major part of the in- 
habitants, for in general they are very 
g'reat sluts and slovens. When they 
clean their houses, which, by the bye, 
is very seldom, they are unwilling to 
remove the filth far from themselves 
for they place it close to their doors, 
which in the summer time breeds an 
innumerable quantit}^ of bugs, fleas, 
and vermin. 

The religions which prevail here are 
hardlv to be numbered. Here are 



the Dutch Calvinists, who have a 
church built with square logs, and the 
interstices filled with clay. In this a 
small organ good for little and worse 
played on by the organist. 

The sect of Luther have a church 
likewise. This is more spacious than 
that of the Calvinists, being built of 
stone, and is much larger than the 
other. The minister of this church is 
a gentleman of good character, and by 
his true pastoral conduct keeps his 
congregation in good order. The min- 
isters of the Dutch churches are al- 
lowed no certain stipend for preach- 
ing, but are paid at the will of their 
hearers. This is a good tie upon them 
to do their duty, and makes them more 
diligent than our clergy are. 

A clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land sometimes officiates in the Court 
House, there being no church here 
built by those of that persuasion. 
There are a great number of Irish 
Presbyterians and several Jews, with 
divers others that neither themselves 
nor any one else can tell what sect 
they follow or imitate." 




!-ggr-,Vjf. C'j^^'r L-„ «f3,s£li.^-^:t ' ' .'z^'i.tia^.'St %tr'iZ'-.f^:SLSl 



"buck and BERRY"j a rare LANCASTER COUNTY SCENE 



INDEX 



79 



CONTENTS 

Introductory Note ■ 

The City of Lancaster 

A Trip to Marietta 

A Trip to Elizabethtown 

A Trip to Pequea 

From Ouarryville to Lancaster 

A Trip to the "East End" 

A Trip to Terre Hill 

A Trip to Ephrata and Adanistown 

A Trip to Manheim and Lititz 

Lancaster in the Days of Yore 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Center Square, Lancaster 

Northwestern Section of Lancaster 

Wheatland 

Residence of W. L. Hershey, Landisville 

Conestoga Wagon 

A Group — Columbia's Historic Bridges 

A Group— Historic Spots of Wrightsville 

A Group— Chickies and Marietta 

A Group— Historic Buildings 

Strasbnrg Academy 

Old Mennonite Church, L,andisville 

Boeera's Old M. E. Church 

Ruins of Cedar Hill Academy 
Mount Joy Railroad Cut 
Donegal Springs 
Donegal Presbyterian Church 
Cameron Homestead 
Tunnel Cut 

The Square, Elizabethtown 
Elizabethtown College 
Catholic Church, Elizabethtown 
Wabank Hotel 
Postlethwaite's Tavern 
Main Building Millersville Normal School 
A Tobacco Field 
Martic Forge Railroad Bridge 
Rawlinsville Trolley Terminus 
Hotel Ouarryville 
Birthplace of Robert Fulton 
The Ramsay Home 



2 
3 
9 
15 
23 
28 
35 
46 
54 
58 
72 



4 

5 

7 

8 

9 

11 

12 

14 

16 



17 

17 
18 
19 
19 
20 
20 
21 
23 
24 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 



Birthplace of Hon. W. U. Hensel, Ouarry- 
ville, Pa. 30 
The Herr House 31 
Main Street, Strasburg 32 
The Shroy Home 33 
Mennonite Meeting House, vStrashurg 33 
Martin Mylin House 34 
Blanche Nevin Fountain 35 
Pennsylvania R. R. Station 35 
Third County Prison 36 
County House and Asylum 36 
Witmer's Bridge 37 
A Group— Historic Houses by the Way 39 

White Chimneys 

Bleak House 

Rockford 

The Rectory 

Oak Hill 

Home of Mr. M.N. Wood.s 

Gap and Pequea Valle}' 40 
Entrance to Bel'levue I'resbyterian Church 41 

View of Gap, Pa. 42 

William Penn Spring 43 

Gap Clock Tower 44 
The Old Sadsbury Friends Meeting House 45 

Christiana Riot House 45 

The Original Binkley Bridge 46 

Street Scene, Intercourse, Pa. 47 

A Group— New Holland Scenes 48 

A Group — New Holland Churches 49 

Home of Miss Blanche Nevin 50 

Conestoga Valle}^ Churchtown, Pa. 51 
Bridge Across the Conestoga near Blue Ball 52 

Bangor P. E. Church, Churchtown, Pa. 53 

Bird's Eye View of Adanistown 54 

A Group— Ephrata Scenery 55 

A Group— Ephrata Cloister Buildings 55 

Street Scene in Adanistown 56 

Main Street, Reamstowii 57 

The Old Historic Muddy Creek Church 57 

P. M. Musser Memorial Chapel 58 

George Ross Monument 59 

Union Stock Yards 59 

Cemetery at Oregon 60 

Rotary Station near Neffsville 61 

View of Manheim, Looking North 61 

The Stiegel Mansion 62 



80 



INDEX 



The Stiegel Office 62 

Lutheran Church, Manheiln 63 

A Ten Plate Stove 64 

Historic Stiegel Homestead' 65 
Tombstone of First Wife of Baron Stiegel 66 

First House in Lititz 66 

A. Landmark, Formerl}' the Brethren's 

Granarj' 67 

First Gemeinhaus in Lititz 67 

Linden Hall Seminarj' in 1850 68 

Linden Hall Seminar}- To-day 69 



The Pool, Lititz Springs 

General John A. Sutter 

Harvest Scene 

A Southwest View of Lancaster (18C0?) 

St. Mary's Catholic Church 

A Group 

Saw Buck House, Lancaster 

Winower Hovise, I^ancaster 

Moravian Church, Mount Joy. 

Saw Buck House, 1750 

Buck and Berr}' — An Ox Team 



69 
70 

71 
73 
75 

77 



78 



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